Living Stories
by ninjasdrinkingtea
Summary: Evie Grayson is looking after her cousins Jamie and Sophie while her aunt is out of town for a few weeks. She couldn't deny that all of these stories her cousin kept telling her were pretty cool. If only they'd just stayed stories like she'd expected them to. Is a Jack/OC story, not gonna be all fast and sloppy with overly-cute bits. A little sad.
1. Chapter 1

"_Evie!_"

The teen narrowed her eyes on the brown-haired boy who was bolting towards her at full speed to where she stood on the snow layered sidewalk, a wide grin on his face. Disbelief settled at the bottom of her stomach as she heard the taxi behind her drive off down the street, away from the Bennett household.

_Is that Jamie?_

She smiled, She almost didn't recognize him. The sixteen year old set down her case and opened her arms as wide as she could, despite the bags that she awkwardly held. Jamie threw himself into the teen's arms, almost knocking the pair off-balance. Her smile widened as she steadied them both, chuckling as she lifted him slightly off of the ground and swung him from side to side. She had to place him back down on the sidewalk though from the unbearable weight of her bags that were still slung on her arms.

"Jeez, kid, I barely recognized 'ya! Look at how much you've grown from my last visit! You used to be _this_ small-!" She leveled her hand in the air just below her armpit. "You're now passed my shoulder! Even, maybe, up to my chin?" She examined the young boy with her brown eyes.

Jamie laughed. "Uh-huh! I didn't recognize you either, I mean, look at your hair! It's bright red!" He stared up at the pillar box red hair, slightly dazed. The last time he and Evie had spoken, she had mentioned the idea of having red hair. He never thought she'd _actually_ go though with it, though.

"Ha, yep. Like it? Granny Sophia loved it when I stayed at Christmas."

"It's awesome, Evie. Granny Sophia won't be the only one who'll like it, Sophie's gonna go nuts-"

"_Elmo!_"

The two cousins turned their heads in the direction towards the front door, where a small, blonde four-year old stood, face awestruck as she pointed towards the sixteen year old. Behind her stood Evie's aunt Marie, Jamie and Sophie's mother. Her hands on her hips, she stared agape at the teen, who was nervous to say the least. Her great-grandma loved her colourful hair, would her aunt...?

The little girl was now hopping towards the teenager excitedly, springing up and down on the path despite her lack of warm clothing. Setting her bags down this time, as a precaution, she crouched down and let the young child bounce up into her arms. Evie groaned as she lifted her blonde cousin, grinning as she set her on her hip. But the child in her arms wasn't staring specifically at _her_, just her crazy red hair. Before she could utter out a single word, the girl's small hands were smoothing her coloured hair, running her little fingers through it. Evie laughed.

"Well, _hey there_, Sophie."

"_Elmo_," The little girl whispered breathlessly.

"No, Sophie, it's_ Evie_, remember her?" Jamie laughed, rolling his eyes at his young sister. Sophie narrowed her emerald eyes on the teen, hands still in her hair. Marie Bennett approached, eyebrows raised. The teen had grown since she had last seen her the Christmas before. From the small, thin blonde haired fourteen year old Marie had seen, Evie had blossomed into a taller, more proportioned young woman. And also, undoubtedly beautiful.

Marie cleared her throat. "Evie, hon, interesting colour of hair, sweetie." She chuckled at the young woman in front of her. Evie turned her attention to her aunt, her grin widening. From Marie's tone she could tell that she wasn't unimpressed or disappointed with her radical decision to dye her hair this colour. The sixteen year old awkwardly untangled Sophie's small hands from her hair and set her down onto the sidewalk, stepping forwards into her aunt's open arms.

"It's great to see you, Marie," She hugged tightly onto her aunt, smiling into her shoulder. The woman after a few moments pulled away, holding her niece away from her at arm's length, emerald eyes trailing over the teen. She was as tall as her now, maybe a bit over.

"You too, sweetie. You've grown so much! What has New York done to you, huh? You weren't this tall when I last saw you,"

Evie giggled. "Hey, maybe you've shrunk-" The sixteen year old remarked.

"Oh, _enough of that_. I'm glad to know that my niece is as witty as she used to be." Marie shook her head, taking her arms from the teen's shoulders and stooping down and picking up her four-year old daughter. Sophie didn't take her eyes off of her older cousin, fascinated by the bright mop of hair on her head. Marie also grabbed Evie's case before she set off towards the front door, beckoning her niece after her.

"Let's get out of the cold, I'm _freezing_."

Evie chuckled to herself and swung her backpack up onto her shoulder, swatting her eleven year old cousin out of the way when he reached for the cardboard box that she had left on the concrete when getting herself out of the taxi.

"Jay, I've got-"

Jamie ignored her, snatching up the cardboard box. "_Whatever_, c'mon!" He rolled his eyes, running off up the path towards the front door. "The sooner you're unpacked, the sooner I get to tell you about everything that's happened. _Hurry up!_" He yelled, disappearing into the house. Evie began to trudge up the icy drive, pursing her lips. It was good to be back in Burgess.

* * *

_"Call me_, okay? If anything goes wrong, I mean-"

"Yeah, of course. It's okay, Marie, everything'll be fine, you have my word."

It was 5:14 in the morning, the sun hadn't even risen on the small town yet. Sophie clung tiredly onto the teen, drifting between consciousness and sleep. Jamie was standing in the snow beside Evie, boots on his feet as he tiredly rubbed his eyes. Both kids had refused to let their mother drive off to the airport without a final goodbye, so Evie had kept her promise and woken them to do so.

Marie climbed into the cab, blowing a kisses to her two children. Sophie yawned as she waved goodbye, trying to keep her green eyes open long enough.

"Bye-bye, mommy." She mumbled as the woman shut the taxi door. The three kids watched as she buckled her seat belt in the back of the car and peered out of the window. Jamie, Sophie and Evie waved after her as the taxi drove away down the street on route towards the nearest airport. As soon as the car had started moving, Evie felt her blonde cousin's head droop between the crook of her neck. Sophie was sound asleep.

"Right, c'mon, kiddo." Evie sighed, ruffling Jamie's already disheveled hair, nudging him gently. The eleven year old didn't protest, leading the way back indoors.

Jamie sniffed. "How long do you think that it'll take for Granny Sophia to get better? I hope mom isn't away too long..." He mumbled as he stepped indoors, Evie following suit. The teen shut the door, slipping out of her sneakers as her cousin clambered out of his boots. He looked exhausted.

"She'll be home before you know it, okay? Now go to bed, squirt, you look as if you're gonna do a Sophie in a minute." She smiled softly as her cousin. Jamie grunted and began to climb the stairs, Evie following up after him. She needed her bed too.


	2. Chapter 2

"Have you finished unpacking?"

"_No, Jamie_. I'm a procrastinator, I'll end up doing it in like, a weeks time."

The eleven year old frowned. "What's _that?_"

"Someone who puts off doing things because they're lazy and careless, that's who."

It was the next morning, well, _later _that morning since Mrs. Bennett had left to catch her flight to Wisconsin. The two cousins sat up at the kitchen table, Jamie eating a bowl of cereal and Evie stirring the coffee in the mug in front of her, hunched over tiredly. She turned her tired gaze onto the four-year old who ran into the kitchen, fairy wings attached on her back.

"Elmo,_ Elmo!_ Can I watch _TV?_" The little girl asked, emerald eyes wide. Evie shook her head at her youngest cousin, biting the inside of her cheek. The four-year old had decided that her red-haired cousin was now to be called after the furry red puppet. It didn't bother Evie much and didn't complain when Sophie called her by it.

"Ah, not yet, kiddo. Eat some breakfast first, yeah? You can't watch television on an empty stomach."

The four-year old pouted, but did as she was told and climbed up onto the chair beside her. Evie stood from her seat and retrieved a bowl from the cupboard, noting that Sophie had eagerly already grabbed for the box of Lucky Charms already out. Her gaze fell onto the sheet of paper on the counter as she placed the bowl in front of Sophie.

"Your ma' left me a list, guys, if you didn't already know. I haven't read them yet, but I'm just warning you in advance that I don't mean to be totally boring and suck, okay?" She explained, pouring Sophie a portion of the cereal and drowning it with some milk. The blonde girl immediately dug in.

Jamie snickered. "You suck already."

As she grabbed the list, she glared at the boy. "If I suck then you must _reaaaaally _suck, squirt." She smirked. He poked his tongue out at her, and she mirrored the action. Evie stared down at the list.

_1- Sophie normally eats all of her vegetables and fruit but she isn't a huge fan of tomatoes. Don't force her to eat them, she won't touch a single one!_

_2- Both of the kids have to be ready and outside for the school bus at 7:45 every morning. The bus stop's just down the street to the right, you'll see it._

_3- Jamie and Sophie have bedtimes. Sophie needs to be in bed by seven, Jamie can stay up until half eight, lights out at nine. _

_4- Below is a grocery list, use the money I've left when you need to go to the store. _

_5- Jamie is allowed to go out with his friends in the neighbourhood, but make sure he's home before dark. Sophie can go out too, providing you're with her. _

_P.S- Call if there's anything you're concerned about! The kids should be on their best behaviour, if there's an urgent emergency the next door neighbours will be happy to help._

"Huh, reasonable. _2- None of the kids are allowed_ _to watch television at all whilst I'm gone and-_"

"What?!" Jamie yelled, snatching for the list. Evie threw her head back and laughed as the eleven year old searched the list for this rule with horror. Sophie's emerald eyes blinked up at the two, gasping seconds after.

She shook her small head. "No, no! We're allowed TV!"

Jamie, realizing his cousin's small prank rolled his eyes, breathing out a sigh. He glared at the laughing red-haired girl opposite him, handing her back the list.

"Ha, very _funny_, Evie. It's okay, Soph, she was pulling a prank on us." He grumbled, scooping up a spoonful of his cereal and shovelling it into his mouth. Evie snickered, pressing her hand to her mouth she leaned back, folding her arm across her chest.

"Lighten up, you're too serious, pipsqueek." She picked up her mug and took a sip of her caffeinated drink. "It would've been impossible to keep you kids away from the television anyway."

Sophie huffed, going back to her breakfast as Evie unlocked her phone and looked through her text messages to see if her aunt had messaged her at all. Of course, there was nothing there. She was very likely to be on the plane still.

"Can I go out to play with my friends after breakfast?" Jamie asked before taking a drink of his orange juice. Evie glanced up at him from her phone, shrugging.

"Sure, you know the rules. Be back before dark-"

Sophie jumped in her seat, almost flinging her spoon across the room. "Can we go out and play?"

"I thought you wanted to watch TV?"

Sophie snickered. "Snow, Elmo! I wanna build a snowman."

Evie rolled her eyes, taking a gulp of her coffee. "Well, I don't see why not. Might as well play out in it until it melts."

Jamie gave Evie a look, shaking his head. "Not so soon it won't. Jack'll make it last longer, he always does. Last year there was still a little snow around Easter."

She didn't look up from her phone. "That's cool."

"Maybe you'll meet him if he's around, you'd like him, Evie..."

She threw him a smile. "Well, if your friend is cool enough to make the snow last a little longer, then why not?"

* * *

It had been two years since Evie had last played in the snow with Sophie. She had a hunch that Sophie didn't remember it very well, as she was practically a baby at the time. Now that Sophie was older, could walk around easily and stronger, she could help the teen build a snowman. This was a little more enjoyable than when Sophie could only help place a carrot on the snowman's face and lay back in the snow with her cousin and make snow angels.

"There you are, Soph! Make it as big as you can, the biggest snowball you've ever made!"

Evie had made Sophie in charge of making the snowman's head, giving her the smallest, easier part of the snowman. The little girl complied on her knees as she rolled the growing snowball in the layer of snow beneath her. She wasn't doing too bad. Meanwhile, Evie had already made the base of the snowman, moving onto the second giant snowball above the base.

The teen huffed. "Do you remember when we played in the snow last time, Sophie?"

"Yep! We made snow angels!"

So she _did _remember. The red-haired girl grinned, staggering forwards as she shoved to the large snowball forwards. A few more roles of this, and she'd be done. She peered over at the blonde nearby and gave her words of encouragement as she continued rolling herself.

The sound of children laughing was heard in the distance as Evie stood, wincing the pain in her back from behind hunched over for so long, rolling. Jamie had been out with his friends in the neighborhood for around an hour now.

"Right, Soph, that'll do. You've done a terrific job!" Evie complimented the little girls work. Grabbing the giant snowball in front of her, she heaved it up onto the base of the snowman, grunting as she did so. Sophie rolled her big snowball towards the almost finished snowman, huffing. Evie picked up the snowball that was around the size or a soccer ball, placing it on the giant snowball that she'd just made.

Sophie jumped up and down, giggling happily. "We did it, we did it!"

"Yep, but it's not done, kiddo. Go on, go and get the carrot and pebbles that we picked up on the porch," She nodded over towards the porch at the back of the house behind them. Sophie did as she was told, running off towards the green steps. Evie stood back and admired their work so far, waiting for the four-year old to arrive back. Sophie returned quickly, the decorations for the snowman in her little hands.

"I wanna put the carrot in, Elmo!" Sophie grinned. She threw down the five pebbles as the teen grabbed the little girl underneath the armpits, lifting her up so she was level with their snowman. Holding firmly onto the snowman's head, Sophie rammed the long, orange carrot into the snowman's head, giggling.

"He's gonna look pretty!" Sophie declared. "See?"

"Gotta give him eyes first," Evie smirked, setting the child back on the blanket of snow beneath. "Grab those pebbles for me, would 'ya?"  
The four-year old handed the pebbles over to the teen. Getting a good grip on the snowman's head, she stuck two of the pebbles above the carrot nose. Sophie shrieked with joy as Evie finished up by placing the remaining pebbles in a line down the second part of the snowman.

"Pretty, pretty snowman!"

Evie laughed. "Yeah, he looks rad! High five, Soph, we couldn't have made him pretty without _you_." She lowered her hand down to the blonde girl, grinning. Sophie slapped it with her gloved hand. As the two stood back to admire their work, Evie didn't hear the young kids behind approach.

The snowball hit her directly in the center of her back, making her stumble forwards slightly from the blow. She grunted but managed to miss slamming into the snowman in front of the two girls. Sophie would be devastated if their snowman was ruined just after they finished it. The red-haired teen spun around, glare fixed on the suspect.

"_Jamie_, you little _swine_. You really wanna get into a snowball fight with me?"

Her eleven year old cousin snickered, fixing his hat further down onto his head. "Bring it!"

A wicked smile spread over the teens face. "You don't know what you've just got yourself into, pal, but let me just warn you now. I. Will. _End. _You."

He laughed as he retreated out of the hole in the fence, hurrying away out into the back street. The red-haired teenager turned her head down to her small cousin.

"Right, short stuff, ready to kick some butt?"


	3. Chapter 3

The sixteen year old creeped out of the wooden gate of the Bennett's back yard, her eyes narrowed as she glanced around. She took several side steps to the left, eventually coming to a stop beside the hole in the fence. Evie knocked twice on the wood beside the hole, her back pressed up to the fence.

"_Elmo to Blondie, I repeat, Elmo to Blondie. The coast is clear,_" She murmured in a soft, hushed tone. Her gloved hand was cupped around her mouth, as if she was talking into a radio.

There was a giggle. "_Roger, Roger, Roger!_"

Behind the wooden fence there was the sound of shuffling and then moments later, little Sophie climbed out of the hole through the fence, out into the back street. The teen helped the little girl up, standing in front of her slightly as both of the girls looked around. Evie stepped forwards, stooping down and gathering snow into her palms. She fixed the handful of snow into a tight, lumpy ball, and handed it to Sophie.

"Here, Blondie. You're gonna need to make yourself more ammo, but that's a start. Stay behind me, okay?" Evie explained to the wide-eyed child, rolling a snowball for herself. She stood, straightening herself out as the four-year old held tightly onto the snowball.

"_Pretty_,"

"Yeah, that's right, but it needs to be thrown into somebody's face, kid." The teen smirked. Before either of them could utter out another word, a ball was pelted in Evie's direction. The sixteen year old saw the soaring snowball and ducked out of the way, just managing to dodge it.

She blinked, stooping down next to the four-year old. "Quick, Blondie! Get under cover, we're under attack! _Go, go, go!_"

She and the four year old dived down behind two trash cans, the blonde screaming as she went. Evie crouched in her hiding place and pelted the snowball in the general direction of where the snowball was thrown from. She grunted, scooping up another handful of snow and peering up over the trash cans. Several children were slowly approaching. She pelted the second snowball at one of them, unluckily just missing the girl. The teen reached up for the lid of the trash can, snagging it and pulling it down towards her. She turned her attention onto Sophie.

"Blondie, I want one of us to make it out of here today. You have to stay here and make ammo for me, right? I'm going-"

The four-year old shook her head. "No, it's too dangerous-!"

"Do me a favour, if I don't _survive _this, and tell Jamie he's a little twerp. He'll understand what you mean when you tell him..." The red-head dramatically pleaded, gloved hand pressed to her mouth. The blonde nodded, emerald eyes glistening. She knew that Sophie would deliver said message with honor. With one final peek up at the approaching kids, she turned to Sophie.

"It was good working with 'ya, Blondie. Lay off the sugar." And then, the teen sprung up from her hiding place, snow ball in hand and trash can lid ready as a shield. Her brown eyes widened as she backed away into a brick wall behind. Sophie watched her with worry, quickly making more ammo for the teen.

Evie shook her head. "Oh _God_, they're everywhere! Elmo over and out!" The girl cried, arm swinging the snowball at one of the kids near. Her aim was perfect, it hit him right on his shoulder. He staggered back a little, and Evie took this opportunity to spin to the right and run straight down the snow-layered sidewalk, shield defending her as she went. Several balls hit the metal of the lid.

"C'mon, you're all not even trying! I could _dance _across here, doing the freakin' _Fandango_, and none of you would hit me with the way you're pelting those things!" Evie yelled, taunting and aggravating the children. She dived down behind a car, quickly scooping up some snow and making herself more snowballs to throw. She glanced up from her hiding spot, a groan coming out of the back of her throat.

"No, no _way_. Where do you all keep coming from, huh?" She shook her head, targeting a tall eleven year old with a striped scarf. She hit the girl perfectly, earning a grin to form on the teens face. "Aw, you're all just making this easy for me now!" Evie smirked, throwing another ball. Miss. She rolled her eyes and grabbed her final ball, shooting up from behind the car. There were six of them, including Jamie. She bolted back towards the left, cackling as she went.

Sophie cried out to the teen. "Run, Elmo, run!"

"Caleb, hit her!" One of the kids yelled at another. Evie turned and chucked her remaining ball at one of the boys, hitting him in the middle of his abdomen. She threw her head back and laughed, scampering onwards towards where her cousin hid. Before she was even close to the trash cans though, her brown-haired cousin jumped out in front of where Sophie hid, a grin on his face. Evie skidded to a stop, eyebrows raised. A sudden cold, gust of wind hit her as her mind raced with directions of where to go.

"Well, hey there, angel face-!" She grumbled, veering off in a sharp turn to the right. She sprinted across the road, yelling out as more snowballs hit her metal shield. "You shouldn't jump out on people like that, squirt, it's not very _friendly_." She remarked, making it across the road. The kids laughed after he as hurried across the new sidewalk she was on, remaining close enough to the trash cans so she could keep an eye out for her youngest cousin.

Jamie laughed. "C'mon guys, we're closing in on her!"

Evie threw herself under cover behind a blue car with a soft grunt. "Oh no you're _not._" She grumbled, peeking up behind the hood. She scooped up more snow and glared at chuckled. "Jamie Bennett is a short, whiny little kid with weird hair!"

"My hair isn't weird!" Jamie yelled throwing a snowball directly at his cousin, annoyed. She luckily ducked, just, _just _missing the speeding snowball.

"Uh-huh, it is!" She snickered. "He also has no morals, may I add! And that hat he's wearing, _so _last week."

She pelted a snowball at her cousin, cackling as it hit him. She jumped up from her recent spot behind the car and hurried off back over the road, blocking off the latest hits in her direction. She skidded to a stop next to the trash cans where Sophie sat, several balls ready-made.

"Elmo, you're back! Look, I made ammo!"

The teen made an awestruck face, eyes trailing around briefly. "Good girl! Now, let's make 'em eat snow!" She smirked, starting to pelt the snowballs out to her new enemies.

Jamie threw one back. "Yeah? Well at least I don't look like a mermaid!"

Evie's mouth dropped as she let out a small shriek, horrified. She shot up, shied still in hand, outraged. "What did you just call me? I am _not _a stupid half-fish princess who is stupid enough to give her voice away to some fat lady!"

Several snowballs were thrown at her, but she quickly dodged out of the way, an annoyed look on her face. She didn't catch where they were thrown from, she had her glare fixated on the eleven year old not far in front of her. From the sound of the balls hitting the brick wall behind her, she knew that it was at least from a distance or thrown pretty hard. She couldn't help but wonder which one of the kids had managed to throw so many like _that_.

"Deal with it, you're _Ariel_. Sing us a song so you can be a _Part of Our World._" He teased.

The teen winced, cringing away from the teasing words. She wasn't very fond of that Disney Princess, especially after she had dyed her hair and was called that by several people. Lips pressed into a tight line, she pointed at the eleven year old, snowball still in hand.

"_You_," She began. "Can shut your _face_, short stuff. If I'm such a sissy princess..."She trailed off. "Then I wouldn't be able to do this!"

Jamie didn't have time to duck out of the way. The snowball that the sixteen year old had thrown landed right on his nose, right in the middle of his face. Evie yelled out a cry of success, fist bumping the air as she stooped down at scooped up her young cousin. She placed her 'shield' back onto the trash can and ran as fast as she could back towards the house. The kids yelled after her as Sophie and Evie laughed wildly.

Evie raced across the back yard of her new home, placing Sophie down onto the snow as she hurried her forwards. Sophie had squirmed when they had went passed their snowman, crying out.

"Mr. Snowman! We can't leave him!"

Evie rolled her eyes, ushering the little girl onwards. "I have a feeling he'll do just fine, Blondie. Now quick, before-"

The snowball hit her directly in the center of her back, just as it had the first time before the snowball fight, or, well, _snowball chase _had started. She froze, stumbling to a stop as the little girl gasped and looked up at her. The teen, with wide, glistening eyes stared down at her little cousin.

"_I've been hit, kiddo._" She croaked, choking on the air. She dramatically fell to the floor, flopping onto her back as she stared up at the grey skies above, an expression of horror written across her features.

Sophie dived down onto her knees. "Elmo!"

Jamie and his friends approached, laughing at the dramatic scene in front of them. Evie gripped tightly onto Sophie's gloved hand, hushing her as she pretended to die.

"I _win_, fish face." Jamie laughed wickedly.

Evie narrowed her eyes, trying to ignore the name. "I-I can see a light. Here, Blondie, ah," She began, nudging the four-year old. "Great field work today. You're captain now, you're in charge." She paused. "But that doesn't mean that you can go crazy on sugar, I'll be _watching _you from above."

And then, she expertly coughed in a way that you'd see on the movies, a final breath of air inhaled through her lips. She sighed it out, shutting her eyelids as she 'died'.

It was silent for a few moments, before cries of laughter erupted from the children. Evie didn't move, though. She heard the shuffling of feet around her as Jamie spoke to one of his friends.

"Yeah, guys, this is my cousin, Evie."

She heard Sophie sniff. "Jamie, Elmo told me to give you a message. She said that you're a little twerp."

The children around her went crazy with their laughter and giggling as she could feel Jamie's glare burning into her forehead. She had to contain the smile that threatened to make an appearance on her calm, 'dead' face.

"And as you probably guessed," Jamie continued. "Evie is completely _nuts_."

She had enough. "Right, that's _it_." The teen growled.

Evie's eyes snapped open and she shot up upright from her place on the snow into a straight sitting position. She grabbed onto the eleven year old boy's legs, grunting as she dragged him down into the snow. The boy collapsed, laughing with joy as she shoved him into the cold substance, pressing his back into the pure white snow.

"Who wants to help me make this little _pipsqueek _into Frosty the Snowman?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Ah, I did warn you all that this wouldn't be going too fast! Jack will be introduced in this chapter, but only partially. You'll see as you read it. There was only a little smidge of him in the previous chapter, as some of you may or may not of noticed. I plan on having Jack make a full appearance in the next chapter or the one after, don't worry! I'm glad that you're all enjoying this so far ;) **

If it wasn't for the fact that Marie Bennett had left her car behind, then it would've made the teen's morning a bit of a struggle. With Jamie doing his first year of Middle School and Sophie still in preschool, Evie had to get herself to school on time herself. Thankfully she was left the car.

She'd been given a tour around the school by a girl called Frankie, a dark-haired girl who despised 98% of what the school stood for. Her view on Burgess High School made the place sound as if it was some sort of lower grade version of a brothel. The kids aspiring to popularity as their years of high school progressed, half of the teachers simply expecting their students to be destined for failure. Oh, and her _hate _for the cheerleaders.

Evie could feel the optimism oozing out of the girl.

"_Introduce a little anarchy._"

Evie raised an eyebrow, giving Frankie a look. "Uh, hi there, _Joker. _Batman fan, I take it?"

"How did you guess?" The dark-haired girl replied sarcastically.

Evie shut her new locker after checking to see if her combination worked, a small smile on her face. The girl beside her was silent, waiting for a reply as her piercing blue eyes bored into the red-head.

"_Upset the established order, and everything becomes chaos._"

The two teens turned away from the long row of lockers, making their way to their fifth period class, which happened to be English. Frankie's eyes widened for a second, a smirk growing on her pale, sharp featured face.

"I think, young _Evelyn_," She began to nod to herself. "This may be the start of a possible, tragically beautiful friendship."

Evie rolled her eyes as they walked through the door of room 402. "It may be, _Francesca_."

"I'll spit in your lunch tomorrow."

"I'm already look forward to it."

* * *

Evie couldn't even attempt to lie to herself that her first day at her new school was exactly great. The feeling of being generally lost, vulnerable and a little pathetic attacked at her insides, making her mouth press into a thin line at the thought of her day. _What a day_.

As soon as she climbed out of the car after picking up Jamie and Sophie, her cousin fired questions at her.

"What's for dinner?"

Evie locked the car, trailing after the two across the path and towards the front door. "Soup."

"_Soup? _What kind of soup?" The boy frowned as the girl unlocked the front door.

"The kind you eat?" She raised an eyebrow, shoving open the front door. "Nah, uh, either tomato or chicken. You guys can pick, I don't really care."

The three trudged inside and Evie slammed the door behind her, watching silently as her youngest cousin squealed for the television, disappearing into the living room. The teen shook her head, removing her jacket and draping it onto one of the coat hooks.

Jamie didn't remove his outdoor clothing. "Can I go out and play?"

Evie headed down the hall and into the kitchen, dropping her backpack onto one of the kitchen chairs and checking the time. She'd start dinner in an hour.

"Got any homework?"

Jamie hesitated. "Well, _yeah_, but it's only Math. Can I do it when after dinner? And besides, if I did it now then by the time I'd finish dinner might be done, and it'll be dark by then..."

"Well," She began. The kid had a point. "Sure, but be back before dark, okay? I don't wanna be hunting down some weird-ass eleven year old for dinner in the dark, kiddo."

Jamie grinned, yelling thanks to Evie as he ran out of the back door and out into the back yard. His cousin smiled to herself, shaking her head once again as she went away to help Sophie with the television. She was surprised to see that the four-year old had managed to turn it onto the right channel. She plopped down on the couch behind where Sophie sat on the rug in front of the television, eye's fixed on the show she was watching. There was a yellow...dog? Yes, a yellow dog with a human boy wandering around some sort of magical land.

"What're you watching there, Blondie?"

Sophie didn't take her eyes off of the screen. "Adventure Time!"

* * *

Evie softly hummed the Adventure Time theme tune to herself, smiling. _What a show_. It leveled up to the great old Cartoon Network classics that she used to watch as a kid. The red-haired girl stirred at the creamy, orange-colored soup in the pot in front of her, debating whether or not it was ready.

The back door was flung open, making the sixteen year old jump and whip around to see who was there. Jamie stood in the doorway of course, just on time. The sky had already darkened but wasn't exactly pitch black. He breathlessly stepped out of the way of the door, pauses for a few seconds and shut it behind him.

"Great timing, dude, dinner's ready." Evie grinned, turning the stove off with the flick of her wrist. "Sophie, dinner's ready! Turn off the television before you come!" She called to her youngest cousin. She continued to hum the Adventure Time theme tune, turning away from the metal pot and searching through the cupboards for three bowls. She threw a glance at the eleven year old who was standing beside the back door, silently watching her.

Evie paused from setting the table. "You gonna stand and eat your dinner there, or are you gonna come sit at the table with your sister and cousin?"

He gave her a small smile but didn't say a word as he walked towards the table, almost awkwardly sitting down into a chair and continuing to watch the teen. Evie shrugged off his strange behavior, simply thinking to herself that he was just a little exhausted from running around in the snow for two hours. She turned away after finishing placing bowls on the place mats that she'd laid for the three of them, carefully picking up the pot on the stove full with tomato soup.

"You're okay with tomato, right? I forgot to ask you before you went out, but Sophie said you wouldn't mind."

He shrugged. "Yeah, that's cool."

"Actually,_ angel face_," She paused, her eyes flickering up. "It'll be kinda hot."

Jamie rolled his eyes at his cousin, scowling slightly as he folded his arms up onto the table. Evie smirked, pouring the portions of soup into each bowl. Jamie glanced to the right hand side of him before sighing.

"Evie, do you believe in like...stories?"

Evie wasn't really listening to the question as she shoved the pot into the kitchen sink. "Huh?"

Jamie swallowed. "Like, do you believe uh, like, Santa Claus? _The Easter Bunny?_"

"What is this?" Evie frowned, turning back to the boy. "What do you want me to say?"

"_Yes?_"

Sophie ran into the kitchen, almost slamming straight into her red-haired cousin. Evie chuckled as she ruffled the blonde child's hair, lifting her by the armpits and up onto the kitchen chair beside them both.

The little girl gasped. "_Jack!_"

Evie looked up at the little girl, raising her eyebrows as she looked around the kitchen for this...Jack. Jamie watched his cousin's gaze search over the room, noting the curiosity written on her pale face. The teen didn't say a single word and simply shivered.

"Wow, it's cold in here! Have you shut the door properly, Jamie?"

Jamie quickly nodded at his cousin. "Yep."

"Huh, I'll have to turn the heating up later." She rubbed her upper arms before pulling the sleeves of her long-sleeved shirt over her hands slightly. "I forget how cold this place gets in the winter."

Sophie dug into her soup, humming to herself with a small, soft voice as she swung her small legs back and forth. Evie stirred around the soup in her bowl, bringing one of her legs up to her chest as she leaned forwards and took a sip of the soup. Jamie quietly sat in his chair, pursing his lips as he stirred the soup around several times, not bringing the spoon to his lips once. Evie observed him, biting the inside of her cheek. With another spoonful of soup, she swallowed.

"What's up?"

The boy didn't look up at her. "Nothing..."

"Really?" She raised an eyebrow. "Your little sister's practically got her face in that bowl in front of her but you can't even have a little taste, hmm? I slaved over that stove for you, kid."

They both knew that she hadn't and was attempting to get a reaction from the eleven year old. A smile, a laugh, a _glare_, it didn't matter. What had happened to him?

"You never answered my question, Evie. Do you believe?"

The teen pursed her lips. "Yes? No? I don't know, _why__?_"

Jamie looked up at her, a confident, small smile on his face as he spooned some of the soup into his mouth, swallowing the creamy supper. She blinked at him as he gestured towards the right of him, to the chair that was next to his own. His brown eyes glimmered as he licked his lips, opening his mouth to speak.

"Evie, this is my best friend...Jack Frost."

There was no one there.


	5. Chapter 5

"_Restless Recreation?_"

"Nah, how about _The Catching?_"

"_Guys_," Frankie snapped, slamming her foot down onto the pedal at the bottom of the drum, earning everyone's attention. "Are we _seriously _talking about band names when we haven't even played _two _songs yet?"

Mitch and Harley stopped discussing the different possibilities of what the band should be called, Harley giving an apologetic smile and Mitch simply shrugging. The guitarist and singer remained silent as Frankie continued to rant, whining about how they should all hurry up and just _play._

Evie sat crossed-legged on a crate at the side of her aunt's garage, tuning her guitar and checking to see if the amp lead was correctly inserted into her instrument. She could feel Frankie's intense glare burning into her forehead.

"Have you finished tuning up? C'mon, we've done practically nothing in the entire hour we've been here! I wanna beat the shit out of these drums..." She girl trailed off, gently stroking the drums in front of her, ignoring the strange looks she was getting from her peers. Evie rolled her eyes, jumping up from her seat on the crate and strolling towards her position.

"What song are we playing again?" She asked lazily, looking around at her new friends. Evie heard an angry shriek from behind her, directly where the drums were situated. She was sure that if they weren't about to start the song, Frankie would have lodged her drumstick into the back of Evie's head.

* * *

Jamie was outside with his friends, trudging across the snow-covered back yard. He was enjoying his Saturday so far, Jack had hung around since Monday evening, making quick visits throughout the week. The white-haired guardian had returned for the rest of winter, glad to see his young friend again. Jamie's friends still strongly believed in Jack and the other Guardians, asking him how his new life and Guardian duties were treating him. That, and also participating in snowball fights.

"Woah, do you _hear _that?" His friend Pippa whispered as Jamie dropped his sledge down onto the porch steps at the back of the house, his eyebrows raised. He _did _hear that. The sound of guitars, the heavy beat of a drums. The noise was coming from the garage.

Caleb nudged Jamie. "Is that coming from your garage?"

"Yeah..." Jamie began to run off towards the sound, his friends all running after him. As they ran around the side of the house, the kids could hear the sound of a female singer and a clearer sound of what was being played. Sophie was hurrying after the older kids with Jack floating beside her, an exasperated look on his face.

_What about the snow?  
_

"_...hurts my ears, been running strong for seven years. Rather than fix the problems, they never solve them, it makes no sense at all..._"

Jamie was now at the side door of the garage, his friends near as he peeked up through the glass window of the old door, standing on his tiptoes. His eyes widened in awe at what was happening inside.

"_I see them every day, we get along, so why can't they?_"

His friends behind him pressed up against his back, trying to get a good look of what was going on in there. There were four teenagers, one of them being Jamie's cousin, Evie, playing as a band. All of them concentrating on the song, this catchy song that Jamie had heard Evie play.

Speaking of Evie, she was playing an electric guitar. Jamie had never seen Evie play that sort of guitar before.

"..._So here's your holiday! Hope you enjoy it this time, you gave it all away! It was mine!_"

The brunette singing was rather good, her voice had a rough but kinda beautiful edge to it.

"Jamie, is that _Evie?_"

Jamie shot Claude a quick glance, grinning. "Uh-huh,"

"She can _really _play guitar!"

Jamie leaned further against the door, not taking his eyes off of his cousin. Pippa was right, she really could. She sang along with the brown-haired girl to the left of her, taking a few steps around her general area as she played. He'd only ever heard her play her other guitar, the acoustic one. But _wow._

_"...It's not right!_"

Both Evie and the boy holding the other guitar slowed their playing for several seconds, gently strumming the strings as the female drummer drummed at a steady pace at the back of the garage. Evie and the girl who had been singing turned to each other, swaying slightly back and forth to the music, crazed smiles on their faces. And then, not long later, Evie started shredding, the male guitarist playing too.

"_So here's your-_"

Jamie and his friends cried out as they plummeted through the door, Jamie having accidentally lent on the door handle. The band stopped playing, shocked by the suddenness of the entrance the kids made. All of the teenagers spun their heads around, eyes wide as the children crashed to the floor.

Evie fully turned in the direction of the side door of the garage, still holding onto the neck of the guitar, pick still in hand. Eyes wide, she watched as her little cousin skipped through from outside, wrapped up in her green coat and winter clothing.

"Elmo!"

The kids groaned, shoving themselves up from the ground weakly. From at the back of the garage, the red-haired teen heard Frankie slam her head down onto one of her drums, groaning to herself.

"I hate _everything_." Evie's friend whimpered out.

* * *

The blonde four-year old fell asleep as soon as she hit the pillow. Evie had tucked her in bed, making sure the child's night-light remained on as she backed out of her room. The teen was now heading down the staircase back to the living room, where her homework was there waiting. She wished that she could go to bed now instead of doing _that_.

"No _way__!_ You managed to get _Santa _to have a snowball fight with you?"

Evie didn't interrupt the boy from his conversation with his friend that Jamie claimed to be real. She continued to let him talk to what Evie could only see as an empty space on the couch. She had to gently tell her cousin that she couldn't see Jack, which was a little sad on both parts. Jamie was upset that his cousin wouldn't ever be able to see his best friend and Evie felt bad that she couldn't be as imaginative as her cousins were.

The red-head sat down in the armchair, snatching up her homework from the coffee table. She grumbled to herself, reading over the Biology booklet in her hands and occasionally scribbling down the notes onto the blanks.

"Do you mind if I watch this, Evie?"

She waved her hand at him, dismissing the question and not looking up. "Watch whatever you want, Biology is currently stealing my soul tonight, kiddo."

Jamie snickered. "What do you have to do for Biology?"

"Plants, how your body works, the cells in your body...and a little bit of math. Just a little though, not as much as Physics or Chemistry."

"Huh. What's high school like?"

"Oh, just _peachy._ But don't wish away being in middle school just yet, Jay, you'll wish that you could be back as soon as you go up into high school...believe me."

Jamie frowned, looking down as he fiddled with the remote. "Why would I wish _that__?_"

The sixteen year old glanced up at brown-haired who sat scowling to himself, folding his arms across his chest. She'd question him about that later...right now, she needed to finish this question about the central nervous system that she was on. He began to talk again to his friend.

As Evie worked, she couldn't fight off the thoughts related to her younger cousin. When had Jamie ever had imaginary friends? The two had always been fairly close, she visited a lot whenever she could and throughout Jamie's childhood, she'd never, _ever _seen him talking to himself.

Or this 'Jack' guy. Jack _Frost_.

Would Sophie grow up now doing the same thing?

Would Jamie grow_ out_ of this?

The boy had always strongly believed in stories, but never to the point where he had conversations with him right in the middle of the living room, not a single care in the world.

Evie quickly shook the thoughts away, grumbling once again as she tried to concentrate. Of course, she couldn't.

She glanced up at her cousin, biting the inside of his cheek. "_Jaaamie..._"

Jamie turned his head to her, waiting for her to continue but she just stared at him expectantly, pursing her lips as she gave him a puppy dog look.

"Yeah?"

She leaned back into the armchair. "_Jaaaamie!_"

"What?"

"I don't wanna do my homework," She pouted, like a child. "Play with me? Please?" Her brown eyes, very similar to his own glistened at the eleven year old. She looked a little like Sophie when she asked for things.

Jamie shook his head. "Nah, I don't know..."

"Oh _c'mon!_" She stood from her seat, shoving the homework onto the coffee table. "Just a little, _little _game, whatever you want," She offered, sitting down on Jamie's left side, avoiding the empty space on his right in case he or his invisible friend took a hissy fit. The last thing she wanted was to upset his little pal.

Jamie grinned as she poked his arm repeatedly, brown eyes wide as she began to ramble away about how much she didn't some rescuing from her mountain of homework and Jamie was the perfect candidate here for 'fun'.

"Jack says that he's the _Guardian __of Fun._"

The teen dismissed the comment slightly, sitting up as she glared at the television. "Well, then he's pretty lucky then, right?"

Jamie stood from his seat on the couch and the girl watched him as she trailed to the side of the living room where he produced two action figures.

"_Ooh_, now we're talkin'!" Evie grinned, springing up and sitting with him in front of the small fire. Jamie waved the action figure that was in his right hand in the air.

"This one's mine, he's my favorite. You can have this one,"

She took the other action figure. "He's a stud, I don't mind."

The two cousins played in front of the fire-place for a good twenty minutes, maybe even half an hour. Jamie had put his action figure in command, making Evie's guy some sort of sidekick/ right hand man. She didn't complain once, simply going along with the game. It was a good distraction, she'd rather be doing this than Biology homework.

Eventually, Evie and Jamie ended up laying in front of the fire on the rug, laughing at their game. A bomb had been exploded and Jamie had to be the hero and save Evie's action figure. The game had ended with a showdown between the two action figures and a mysterious dark figure from Marie's mantle place. It was a china, black cat, but Jamie had insisted that it was fine to use it and called it throughout the game _'Pitch Black'__._

Pitch got his ass totally kicked.

"Well, that's one way to avoid doing your homework." Evie chuckled, fiddling with the plastic figure in her hands.

Jamie snickered. "Don't tell mom that I used her china cat, please? She might go nuts at me."

"Whatever, it's fine as long as it's not broken. Besides, what was with this whole _Pitch Black _stuff? Is he some sort of...foreign, evil dude with some sort of _master plan?_"

"No, he's the Boogeyman."

Evie turned her head towards the brown-haired boy, raising an eyebrow. "_The Boogeyman? _Jeez, I haven't heard that one in a while. He's the uh, Nightmare King, right?"

Jamie nodded. "Yep. The Guardians defeated him last Easter, me and my friends helped a little."

"Guardians?"

Jamie sat up. "Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny...the _Sandman_. And Jack, of course. He's the latest edition, though."

"So, Pitch isn't a guardian?"

Jamie cut her off with a laugh. "_No!_ Pitch's the bad guy, he tried to make everyone stop believing in the Guardians because he was like, alone for hundreds of years. Since the Dark Ages, I think. Nobody really believed in the Boogeyman anymore, so he made a comeback and started giving everyone terrible nightmares."

"He did _what?_ He didn't give you or Sophie nightmares, did he?" She sat up.

"No, luckily he didn't. He got to all of my friends, though, and a lot of kids around the world stopped believing in the Guardians. I was the only one left, I think. I knew that they were real because they were all in my room when the Tooth Fairy came. And jeez, she's nothing like you expected her to be!"

Evie frowned. "What is she like, then?"

"She's got like...feathers all over her. She's not _tiny_ like people say she is, she's kind of regular size, a little smaller. She's part bird or something, hummingbird I think. Half-human, too. Guess what?"

"What?"

"The teeth that she collects aren't just some weird hobby, they hold the most precious, important memories of a kid."

"No _way_, that's..."

Jamie cut her off, finishing what she was about to say. "Amazing, right? Anyway, they were all there, in _my _room. The Sandman knocked me out with his sand, but I could remember it clearly the next morning. Easter came after all of that, but Pitch had crushed all of Bunnymund's eggs-"

"Bunnymund?"

"The _Easter Bunny_, Evie! Jeez, catch up already!" He rolled his eyes, giving her a look as she raised her hands in defense. He continued his story. "So when people went on their Easter Egg hunts, there were no eggs, so more kids stopped believing."

Evie bit the inside of her cheek, watching as the boy looked down into his lap briefly, a sigh escaping his lips.

"_I _kinda almost stopped believing. I knew they existed, I'd seen them in my room, you know? I knew that wasn't a dream...but it was getting harder to keep believing after all of my friends had stopped and I couldn't find any of those eggs. But then _Jack _came, he frosted up my window and drew an Easter Egg on it and a bunny...he brought the bunny to _life_, Evie. It was blue and glowing, and it hopped around my room!"

Evie was captivated, holding tightly onto the action figure in her hands as he told his story, leaning forwards as the boy grinned, recalling what had supposedly happened.

"Before I didn't really believe in Jack, nobody did, so I couldn't see him. But because this little blue bunny was floating around my room, I knew that it was Jack Frost. It was snowing too. He told me that the others really were real, but it was almost too late, the Guardians' powers were gone and they were weak, but I got my friends to believe in them again and they helped me and the Guardians defeat Pitch!"

Evie couldn't help the small, hesitant grin spread across her grin. "How?"

"We brought the Sandman back by believing again, 'cause before he got destroyed by Pitch. But our hands were like, _glowing_, golden sand was coming out of them! It was so awesome, Evie, you should have been there! Pitch was forced back under the ground, he was all afraid by his own fears and they dragged him back to his lair."

"And then what?"

"Jack became a Guardian! He's the Guardian of _Fun._"

Evie chuckled, leaning back on her arms as she stared at the eleven year old. She had been curious throughout playing with Jamie, seeming to wonder about this Pitch guy. But then, her curiosity grew until she was fully interested and ended up hung on every word that her cousin spoke about what had happened.

_Had it happened?_

She wanted to think so, but she couldn't help but have her doubts. Not that she thought that Jamie was lying, she didn't distrust the boy at all. But she couldn't help but think that his imagination was getting the better of him.

That wasn't as if that was a bad thing, really. He was still a kid.

"Sorry," Jamie shook his head. "You probably think this sounds all dumb-"

The teen cut him off. "No, no, I didn't say that, did I? I don't think it's dumb at all, it sounds pretty awesome. I wish I _had _been there, from what you've told me you and your friends were pretty brave. Jack too."

Jamie's eyes lit up as he glanced over towards the couch and then back to Evie. "Can you see him?"

The sixteen year old remained silent, pursing her lips as she stared over towards the couch. She wished she could nod and completely wing thing whole thing out and pretend that she was talking to this friend of her cousin, but she just couldn't. It wasn't that simple and she pretty much knew that. Evie shook her head and watched as Jamie's shoulders sagged, the excited look in his eyes escaping from his brown orbs.

"What does he look like?"

He glanced over at the couch. "He's tall, got white hair and blue eyes. He's pretty pale, wears this blue hoodie and has...uh, these pants which are like skinny jeans but they're brown and ripped at the bottom sort of. He hasn't got any shoes and he-"

"No _shoes?_" Evie scoffed. "The guy doesn't get cold-?"

Jamie groaned, rolling his eyes. "_Winter spirit, _Evie! _Winter spirit._"

"Okay, okay! Sorry, continue,"

"He carries around this staff that helps him use his powers. He can fly and float, and he can throw a great snowball!"

Evie smirked. "Hah. If I ever see him one day, I'll have to test that little skill-"

"You've already been in a snowball fight with him, Evie. He's been here since Sunday-"

"_What?_"

Jamie nodded. "You managed to dodge all of his snowballs, I don't know how, seeing though Jack's got a great aim. You almost hit him yourself, but you obviously didn't mean to."

Evie turned her attention towards the empty seat on the couch, narrowing her eyes. "Well. Thanks for that, _Jack_."

"Evie..." Jamie began, pursing his lips. Evie turned her head towards her cousin, inclining her head to the left as she waited for him to continue. He hesitated for a few moments, before continuing. "Why don't you believe? Jack's right there, like, _right __there._"

The sixteen year old sighed, before lifting her head to look up at the ceiling, eyes flickering around the top of the room as she swallowed. She licked her lips, gently tapping the rug with her fingers as she tried to say what she was about to say in a way that would make the boy upset, angry or even enough to make him lose faith in what he believed him. She was down to Earth, not heartless.

If only there was an easy way to say it. Instead, she put it simply.

"I stopped believing after Holly, kid." She shifted uncomfortably, lifting her head back down to look at her cousin. "I think, when she..._left_, I kind of left too. She was always the one that believed in stuff." She paused. "So I sort of grew up after she was gone. You know? Sorry, that's a little heavy-"

Jamie shook his head, his eyes glistening as he interrupted. "No, no it's not! I know how you feel, I felt the same about dad, sort of."

Her cousin never really mentioned his father. His words threw her off guard, making her study him as he stared back at her with a similar expression. Jamie had never spoken to Evie how he felt about what had happened.

"I sometimes feel like a little kid, especially around other people...but you know what, it doesn't matter sometimes, you know? Jack's my best friend in the entire world, I always remember that whenever I get weird looks."

Evie grabbed onto the boy's shoulders. "Jamie, hell, I'll say it, as long as you don't repeat it around your sister. Never, _ever _let those fuckers make you stop believing, okay? Never stop and lose faith in something that you believe in, hold onto it, even when you're an adult. Just because people like me are total killjoys, doesn't mean that you can't have a brighter view on life." She paused. "I don't doubt you for a second, Jay. If I could just believe and see Jack in an instant, then I totally would_. _Hey, maybe one day I will!"

She grinned. "Screw who ever gives you weird looks, you helped defeat the freakin' _Boogeyman!_"

Jamie's eyes widened at his cousin, his small, uncertain smile growing into a grin, similar to his cousin's. He flung his arms around the teen and hugged tightly onto her as she groaned, chuckling as she managed to stop them from both toppling backwards. She wrapped her arms around the eleven year old, rubbing his back.

"Thank you." He whispered.

**Yep, yep, this was a long chapter. A fair bit was needed to be put in, but I don't think you guys'll seem to mind about that ;) I'm not going to go into too much detail about what has happened to Jamie and Sophie's dad, I'll just let you guys think yourselves what's happened, it doesn't need to be really added in to be honest. Thanks for all the reviews so far, I'm glad you're enjoying it! **


	6. Chapter 6

She helped Sophie to sit on the plastic seat, gently holding her upright as she wobbled.

"No, kid, hold onto the chains, would 'ya? That's right," She encouraged the girl who had done as she was told. "Don't lean back, you haven't got that little thing from the other swings that sorta supports your back. You need to do that yourself."

Evie was teaching her four-year old cousin how to use a 'big kid' swing.

The little girl nodded, holding tightly onto the chains. "Okay, I've got it."

"I'm letting go, don't rock back," Evie warned, slowly removing her hand from the small of the Sophie's back. Sophie wobbled slightly for a few seconds and then became still.

"_Easy_."

The teen smirked, moving away from the little girls swing and sat onto the one directly to the left of her. Sophie watched her cousin, lips pursed in concentration.

Evie smiled. "Great, now you've gotta learn how to swing _yourself_. You can't stay lazy forever and have people push you on them all the time. Watch me."

Sophie watched as the teen went through the steps of swinging, observing as Evie swung her legs back and forth at the appropriate times. Eventually the child had gotten the hang of it herself, copying the action until he was swinging fairly high for her first time on a proper swing. She felt proud of herself as she swung higher.

"I'm doing it, I'm doing it!"

Evie watched from where she sat on her own swing, clapping. "Thatta girl!"

"Jamie, Jamie! I can swing like a big girl!" The girl shrieked over to her older brother, giggling happy as she continued to swing her legs back and forth. "_Look!_"

That was when Evie spotted the slim, feminine, dark figure approaching the park gate near to where the teen and her cousin were located. As the sixteen year old narrowed her eyes on the girl, her cell phone buzzed in her jacket pocket. She pulled out the phone and unlocked it, checking her new message.

**Frankie: Come over, Batman. Got news for you.**

How did her friend knew she was here? Evie shrugged to herself as she stood from her swing, muttering to Sophie that she'd just be beside the gate. The sixteen year old trudged across the snow towards the metal gate, twirling her phone around with her gloved fingers.

"Hey," She greeted her dark-haired friend when she was within hearing-distance. "How did you know I'd be here?"

Frankie shrugged. "I live down the street from here and also, I knew you'd be clowning around with your cousins in the snow."

"Oh, wow, and clowning? I was simply teaching Sophie the art of using a proper swing."

"The joys of kids."

Evie smirked. "I'm surprised you're outside, to be honest. Snow and ten in the morning on a w_eekend? _This must be some important news."

"It is important, just be proud of me that I've actually managed to surface from my bed."

"_I am_," The girl paused. "Now spill."

Frankie grinned. "We've got a bassist, Evie...a freakin' _bassist_. Remember that new boy at school in some of our classes, his name's Josh?"

"Uh, yeah, kind of. Him? Didn't see that one coming, I thought that he'd end up being a jock or something."

"Appearances can be deceiving, young Evelyn. Anyways, Mitch has been speaking to him and heard him play a few songs on his bass, he's pretty awesome. He's gonna try out the next time we practice-"

Evie raised an eyebrow. "Can we not just _give _him the place? If Mitch knows that he's great then-"

"He needs to pass _The Test._"

"Huh?"

"He'll get a series of questions and challenges in order to be part of the band."

Evie rolled her eyes. "You're kidding me?"

"Does it look like I'm kidding? Look, stop looking at me like that, we don't even properly know him, he could be a total ass. We just need to make sure he's not gonna screw things around for us, that's all. Now, I was thinking-"

Before Frankie could continue, a frightened, loud scream erupted from behind the two girls. Frankie's eyes widened as Evie spun around to see what had happened.

The red-head's stomach plummeted into oblivion.

"_Sophie!_"

The four-year old had flown forwards off of the swing and crashed down onto the ground beneath her, onto the tarmac that in places, the snow had melted. A sickly loud _thud _was heard, and for a second, _just a second_, Evie thought that her heart had stopped beating. She didn't like the way had landed there, not at all. She stumbled forwards into a run, sprinting towards the fallen child.

Sophie was already crying when the teen got there, skidding down onto the snow-covered tarmac. She dropped down to her knees in front of the child, brushing her blonde hair out of her red, tear-stained face.

"Sophie, sweetie, look at me! Where are you hurt?"

Her cousin and his friends were now surrounding them, and out of the corner of Evie's eye she could see Frankie amongst them. Sophie wept as Evie hushed her, trying to calm her down. She managed to get the child to sit back onto her backside, straightening Sophie into a sitting position so she could try to examine any possible injuries. She had fallen pretty high from that swing, and from that thud she'd heard...she didn't know whether to expect a cut or a broken bone.

"M-M-My knee!"

Evie stared down at the child's knee, pursing her lips as she gently took the bottom of her pant's leg and carefully rolled it up Sophie's small leg.

Luckily, she could only see a little cut there, oozing with blood. She made a soft grunt as she child whimpered, tears continuously streaming down her face.

"Anywhere else?"

Sophie nodded, gasping out between her sobs. "Wrist!"

Now the frightening bit, the bit where Evie hoped she wouldn't find an awkwardly bent bone or something out of place. She reached for the little girls arm that she had pulled up for the teen, carefully placing it into her hand as she pulled the child's sleeve up.

"_Ouch!_"

Evie winced. "Sophie, I need to check your wrist to see if it's broken. Trust me, okay? It'll only hurt a little."

Sophie quickly nodded, pursing her lips bravely as her cousin pulled up her coat sleeve. She then gently pulled off her blue glove, staring down at the wrist and holding it in her gloved hands. She pressed around the area softly, biting her lip. It was swollen and clearly tender.

"It looks like a sprain, kiddo." She murmured gently. "No broken bones, no rushing off to hospital...just a little bandage to make it better, okay?"

"Okay." Sophie sniffled, clutching onto her arm. "Can we go home now?"

"Sure thing, sweetheart."

* * *

Evie had taken Sophie to the next door neighbor, Dr. Jackson, who worked at the local hospital. He confirmed Evie's assumption that Sophie had a sprain and wrapped up her wrist. He gave the teen instructions and advised her to take Evie to the hospital if her wrist worsened in the next few days.

"Where are you going?" Jamie asked his cousin as she fastened up her coat, sneakers already on to leave the house. She let out a sigh, glancing up the stairs.

"Sophie's thirsty, and we're out of milk. I want meant to go to the store today but well, you know..."She trailed off.

Jamie rolled his eyes. "I'm sure she can go to bed without it-"

"No," She interrupted him. "She wants milk, I've already tried to coax her until having water or even juice, but she's refusing. Won't go to sleep without it, she says."

"Look, if this about what happened today, Ev-"

She cut him off again. "No! Well, I feel terrible about it, but I should really go out and get some anyway. What about breakfast tomorrow?"

"Toast? Look, Evie, it's dark, and-"

"Jamie, dude, _it'll be fine_. I'm sixteen, not six. I'll be fifteen minutes, okay? I have my cell, my number's already on the house phone. Call me if you're really worried and I'm not back in twenty."

Jamie sighed irritably, folding his arms. "Fine, but hurry, okay?"

"Sure."

She opened the front door, immediately being met by a cold breeze from where she stood in the doorway. Evie stepped out into the cold night, ignoring the worried look she was getting from Jamie.

Why was he worrying?

Besides, he had _Jack _to keep him company.

Evie slammed the door shut and trailed down the path and down the drive, quickly making her way down the snowy street. It was beginning to get dangerously icy on the sidewalk where she walked, and the teen had to concentrate on not making a step on a sleek, icy patch of the path. An icy, cold wind bit at her cheeks and made her nose turn scarlet as she trudged on, grumbling about how irresponsible she was.

She could just imagine Dr. Jackson and his wife, sitting in front of their fire discussing Evie's stupidity for turning her back on her _four-year old cousin_. She was meant to be watching, telling her not to go too high. She should have kept an eye out, but she didn't. And now, Sophie was hurt because of it.

"I'm such an idiot." She mumbled.

* * *

Evie walked out of the store and into the cold night, shoving her gloved left hand into her pocket as she clutched onto the brown paper bag with her right. It seemed to have gotten colder than before when she stepped into the store and she could see through her brown eyes that the faintest, lightest bits of snow were falling from the black skies above. She smiled softly to herself, starting her journey back to the house.

There weren't many people around, just a few hurrying home from the cold, retreating from a few of the bars. Evie made her way to the curb of the sidewalk, peering both ways before stepping out onto the road. She staggered slightly, stumbling forwards from a lump of snow that she accidentally stepped on.

"Fuck-!" She muttered under her breath, steadying herself as she glared down at the mound of snow. Rolling her eyes, she continued to walk onwards towards the other side of the road, in the direction of home.

She wasn't sure what she heard first. The roaring engine approaching her, the sound of the car horn being slammed angrily...maybe it was the drunk man yelling out a long string of curse words as she watched from the other side of the road? Evie wasn't sure, but she froze, practically _just _like a deer caught in the headlights. Quite literally.

Her scream caught in her throat, that horrible, plummeting feeling occurring in her stomach like earlier today. She couldn't move, she couldn't _run_, she was frozen. Everything that had ever happened to her, every moment, memory, experience that she had conquered and lived through, flashed before her eyes.

This wasn't the ending that she'd hoped for, but that didn't matter now, did it?

Suddenly, she was flying. Soaring, at an impossible speed, backwards, away from the road, away from the car. She was flown backwards over the sidewalk and away from the shining light of the street lights above her and into almost darkness.

Was this it? Was this _death? _No, it couldn't possibly be.

The impact of the wet, alley ground confirmed this. She softly cried out when she crashed to the concrete, plummeting down over onto her side. She could feel her arms grazed, the brown paper back that was in her grasp now gone. She felt blood oozing out of a cut on the side of her head as she winced, whimpering.

The snow was falling harder now, changing from its lightness before. The teen groaned as she pushed herself up from the freezing ground, not entirely sure what had exactly just happened.

An invisible, unstoppable force had knocked her backwards, into this alley, away from the car.

_How?_

She didn't know. The impossible had become possible, she was alive, breathing, she was _here. _

It then occurred to her whilst she stared up into the black abyss of the sky, seeing vague clouds above. Several, thick snowflakes landed onto her pale face as she blinked, her throat dry as realization hit her hard.

Like the invisible force.

Evie's head snapped down so she was staring forwards, out into the street so she was no longer looking up at the night sky. Instead of seeing what she had seen before, the small view of the street from where she was situated in the dark alley, something was obscuring her view.

A thin, pale boy was crouched down in front of her, not too close, but not exactly far. His hair, snow-white, seemed to glow from the remaining light that shone in to the alley way from the street. Wide, large blue eyes stared down at her from where she was, concern and worry radiating off of him. The boy was holding a large, thin wooden staff that towered over them both.

"J-Jack Frost?"

**Haha, yes, Jack has finally made his full appearance! Sorry to keep you all waiting and all, but I wasn't just gonna dive into the story and fully introduce him in like, the second chapter. I'm not sure if this seems rushed, I wanted to make an update today badly...so, if it does seem rushed to any of you, then say, and I'll try to maybe improve it slightly? Some of you may just like it the way it is, that's cool too. Enjoy! :) **


	7. Chapter 7

"_You can see me?_"

Evie couldn't take her eyes off of the boy, who was staring down at her shock and disbelief. Her mouth was hung open slightly as she leaned on her right arm for support, brown eyes wide and mirroring the own look on his face.

How was this possible?

Evie didn't know, but it _was._ This white-haired boy was standing in front of her, similar to how Jamie had described him. The hair, the eyes, the s_taff_.

"You _do _believe in me!"

The girl couldn't gather her words together, opening her mouth and then shutting it. She did this several more times, shaking her head as she did so. She was dead, she had to be. There was no way that she could have survived that, there was no way that this was _real_.

But it was!

She scrambled away from the boy backwards, her body groaning in protest as she shoved herself off of the cold, wet concrete of they alley. He watched her worriedly as she yelped, her breaths coming out ragged and panicked. He stood from his crouch, raising his hand in defense to calm her.

"Evie, it's okay-"

She cut him off, angrily. "How do you know my name?" She demanded.

The white-haired boy gave her a look, tilting his head to the side as he leaned on his staff. "Because I've been essentially in your cousin's company for the past week? C'mon, Evie, you already _know _this."

"No..." She trailed off, the word seeming to fade out into the quiet, coldness of the alley. From outside the alley things seemed to carry on as they were, the citizens of Burgess not aware of what had really just happened. The light, distant chatter from the few people walking around, one car after the other driving passed every few minutes.

The two stared in the silence, not tearing their gaze away from one another. Evie couldn't seem to get her head around this. She'd went to the store to get milk, that was all. And now she was in a dark alley, not sure whether to thank him for saving her life or to try to make a run for it.

"Prove it," She whispered. "Prove that you're not some random guy that's-"

He interrupted Evie. "I was there on the couch when you and Jamie were talking, you told him to never stop believing in me and the other Guardians." He paused, watching her eyes widen. "If that's not enough proof, I was standing_ right_ beside you and Jamie literally ten minutes ago, you promised you'd be back in fifteen. You told him to call you if you weren't back in twenty-"

The words escaped from her mouth before she could stop them. "You were _invisible_. If this is _real, _if I've not just been knocked into a coma or dreaming this, then explain to me how I can actually see you?" She demanded. "How you knocked me out of the way of that car?"

Jack became silent for a few moments, his brow furrowing as he thought. His tongue flashed out for a second and brushed over his pale, slightly pink lips. He wasn't entirely sure of this himself.

"I-I don't know." He began slowly. "I _was_ invisible before, but to you, because you didn't really believe in me. You're a teenager, almost an adult...that's not uncommon. You can probably see me now because I pushed you out of the way of that car." He stopped talking for a moment, his gaze flickering down to his hand that he still had raised. He flecked his pale fingers, examining it for a few moments.

"Although...that doesn't explain _why _or even _how _I managed to touch you, let alone knock you out of the way. I normally pass straight through humans," He paused, turning his attention back onto her.

"But I s_hoved _you away from the car, into this alley. Maybe you _did _believe deep down, but just not enough for you to hear or to see me? Maybe after Jamie told you everything that had happened and kept bringing me up from time to time, you started to believe that I existed-"

"Stop that!" Evie snapped, shaking her head angrily, fists clenched. "Stop trying to make this all sounds as if it's the most..._likeliest _thing to have happened! It's _not_, this shouldn't be happening. You're a story, part of Jamie's imagination! You can't just, appear like that and _save my life__!_"

Her mouth immediately closed, shock and realization of the words that had escaped from her mouth.

The two stared at each other for a few moments, before she opened her mouth again. "You saved my life..." She trailed off. "I'd be dead now if it wasn't for you..._thank you._"

A small smile appeared on his face as he nodded once. "No problem."

Evie wasn't sure what to do now, where to go on from this. Moments ago she had seen her life flash before her eyes, and now some sort of winter spirit/guardian boy had swooped in and saved her. And also had an explanation on how he had suddenly become visible after not being able to be seen by the teen.

She felt herself sway slightly.

"You look as if you're about to pass out," He noted, stepping forwards towards her. She raised her hand in the air to stop him, sucking in a breath of air.

"No, I'm fine. It's been a long day." She paused. Realization hit her. "Oh, _shit_, where did that grocery bag go?" She cursed, her eyes searching the area for the brown paper bag. She heard him snort, and she couldn't stop the glare that she gave him when she looked up at the white-haired boy.

He shook his head. "Not over five minutes ago you were almost run down by a car, shoved to safety at the last second and then find out that you're eleven year old cousin's imaginary friend _isn't so imaginary.._.now you're worried about some _groceries?_"

"Yes," She bit out. "I came out to get milk for Sophie, if you can _remember_. I wanna return back home with that milk, that I _paid_ for and sent myself to get. Now, look around for that brown paper bag-"

She began to walk towards the opening of the alley, but he cut her off and stopped her.

"Are you sure you should be rushing off in your condition? Take it easy-"

Evie narrowed her eyes, cutting him off. "Condition? What are you talking about, there's absolutely nothing wrong with me! A few cuts, scrapes and bumps, I don't have to _'take it easy'_. I'm not some Mary-Sue, okay? I'm fine." She stepped around him, continuing to the street outside.

"Okay, okay, fine. Whatever, let's find that bag."

He followed the teen out into the street as she glanced around, brown eyes searching for the brown paper amongst the snow. As she turned to look around another area of the street, she pumped straight into the pale boy, who planted the brown bag into her grasp.

"Thanks," She muttered. As Evie peered inside to see if either of the cartons were damaged in any way, she suddenly gasped and looked up at the spirit with wide, incredulous eyes.

"Wait, hide that stick of yours! There are people around, they'll freak out if they see some sort of teenage kid with bleached hair, wearing _no shoes _and swaggering around with that thing! It looks as if you're about to take someone's eye out with it!"

He scowled. "No, they'll think you're weird because it looks as if you're talking to yourself. Winter spirit, remember? Nobody can see me if they unless believe in me...w_ait, _did you just say _stick?_ This is a staff!"

She adjusted the paper bag in her grasp, grumbling to herself. "Whatever. C'mon," She muttered, walking towards the edge of the sidewalk. The spirit walked beside her.

"This time, look both ways before crossing the road. I don't want to be saving your sorry butt again."

She grimaced up at him. "Thanks for the heads up."

"No problem."His smirked broadened, winking at her. She turned away, lips pressed into a straight line.

The two crossed, one with amusement written across their face and the other glaring directly forwards. No strange looks were thrown in their direction, it just appeared as though the teen was walking by herself. Of course, a little disheveled, but not with a odd looking boy beside her.

"I had actually looked both ways, by the way. I tripped up on a giant lump of snow that you left lying around."

Jack swung his staff up so it was resting on his right shoulder. He gave Evie a skeptical look, raising one of his eyebrows at the girl.

"You should look where you're stepping next time."

As if on cue, Evie slipped backwards on a patch of slippery, unnoticeable sheet of ice. The red-haired girl let out a yelp as she was sent falling backwards towards the ground. But Jack, with quick reflexes, grabbed onto the teen's right arm, grunting as he pulled her up properly onto her feet.

"Jeez!" He rolled his eyes. "You really are a klutz!"

Evie growled slightly, punching him very hard on the arm. The guardian cried out, jumping away from her she glared fiercely at him, lips pressed into a thin line. She noticed that he was no longer standing on the sidewalk now, he was hovering slightly above it, standing on thin air.

"What are you, Peter Pan?"

It was Jack's turn to glare. "Are you a _mermaid?_"

"If you're going to insult me, at least be original about it."

She began to stalk forwards, this time keeping a sharp eye out for any patches of ice that she could end up slipping on again. Evie clutched tightly onto the brown paper bag, checking the time. Four minutes.

"I feel as if we got off on the wrong foot," The floating boy appeared beside her, hovering at her pace. She threw a glance at him, not slowing.

"You think?"

Jack floated down in front of her, blocking her path. She stopped walking, staring at the teenage boy with an annoyed look.

_What now?_

He offered his hand out to shake. "Jack Frost."

Evie bit the inside of her cheek, not able to fight the small smile that appeared on her lips. She took his pale hand tentatively. He was absolutely freezing. Slowly nodding, she opened her mouth to speak.

"Evie Grayson."

**A wild update appears! Yes, Jack has arrived. He saved Evie, like the good Guardian he is. **

**Now, I was asked by a reader how he managed to push Evie out of the way of the car, as Jack isn't able to touch anyone who doesn't believe in him. I want to try to explain it in a little more detail, as it is only sort of outlined in this chapter. This is how it appeared in my head, even if does sound a little silly or make you skeptical to my general idea of it...  
**

**BASICALLY, Jamie has been prattling on for the past week essentially about Jack. It may not have been mentioned much, but that was what had happened as I thought it through in my head. Evie still has doubts in the whole 'winter spirit' thing, but after her and Jamie's conversation in Chapter 5, deep down, something inside of her is sort of aware of Jack's presence. Despite not being able see or hear him, a part of her slightly believes. So, because this slight part of her had faith in Jack, in a way...Jack was able to swoop down and shove her out of the road in time.  
**

**That sounds daft. Ah. Sigh. It's the basic idea in my head of the whole situation in the two recent chapters. Sorry if that doesn't seem right, but it's just an idea...  
**

**I'm really glad you're all enjoying the story so far! I'll update regularly as soon as I can :)  
**

**7/12- Oh, and ANOTHER THING that I forgot to mention last night-! Heh heh. Uh, I another reader reviewed to say that they weren't too keen on the curse words that I've used in some of the chapters and think I should really put the story up to a 'T'. I shall in fact be probably moving this up to a T in the next few chapters anyway, just in case. Just to be safe :)  
**


	8. Chapter 8

**MERRY CHRISTMAS!  
**

**Finally, an update! Yes, I'm a total scumbag. It's probably been around two weeks since I last updated. I apologize for that, I should have given a word of warning. Right now I'm approaching exams, rather big ones I should say, and I'm studying a lot. So, if there are periods of time when I don't update, please don't shoot me. Two things: This is a quick update, I may read back over it tomorrow to check or any mistakes etc. I wanted to give you all an update, it's the least I could do, as it is Christmas! **

**Also, I'm changing the gap between the film and this story to two years rather than one. In my head I saw Jamie as being ten, but after re-watching the film I realized he was a little younger than that. So, we'll say that he's just turned nine. Bleh. Sophie will remain as four, going on five- no changes there. Rating shall go to a T now, for language and shazz.  
**

**Another thing, I'm not exactly fond of this chapter, so if any of you aren't either, I'll re-edit it. As I said before, I wanted an update I'll stop rambling now...  
**

**Hope you've all had a magical Christmas. If there's anything I've missed, I'll add it into this chapter. I'll try to update as soon as I can!  
**

"Evie, what _happened _to you?"

"Well, that isn't rude at all. Quit staring at me like that,"

The teenager was a little worse for wear when she woke the next morning. Her body appeared to be covered in bruises, especially on the side where she'd made impact with the concrete the night before. Of course Jamie couldn't see the damage from underneath her sweater and pants, but he noticed her stiff movements and cut on the side of her head.

The eleven year old narrowed his eyes on the girl, gripping tightly onto the spoon he held in his grasp. When Evie had arrived back home the previous night, a little late then she said she'd be, it turned out that she was now able to see Jack. Jamie wasn't sure how, or even why Evie suddenly believed in the winter spirit all of a sudden. Both of the teens avoided his questions and Evie promptly sent him to take a bath and then to start his homework.

Jamie frowned. "There's a cut on the side of your head, I can see it! What happened last night? Did you and Jack get into any trouble?"

She wasn't looking at him, she was encouraging Sophie to eat her cereal. The four-year old was reluctant and whined about the television, sprained wrist still neatly bandaged. Annoyed and worried about the time, Evie quickly made a bargain that if Sophie ate ten spoonfuls of her cereal then she was free to go. Sophie quickly did as she was told without another word.

"_Evie!_"

The teen jumped, snapping her head towards Jamie. "What?"

"Stop ignoring me! What happened? Stop keeping me in the dark about things, okay? I'm not a little kid, I-"

Evie raised her hands in defense, cutting him off. "Hey, hey! Slow down there, short stack. I know you're not a little kid-"

"Then tell me what happened."

They stared each other down with the same pair of brown eyes that they had both inherited from their grandfather. One gaze was impatient and annoyed, the other a mixture of reluctance and partial amusement, despite the situation. Biting the inside of her cheek, Evie debated to herself whether or not she should tell him. She couldn't exactly continue to wave him off and say that it wasn't much of a big deal, could she? Almost getting killed was a big deal.

But she also didn't want to worry him.

"All done!" Sophie sang, flinging the spoon back into the bowl with a clatter and grinning wildly to herself. Before Evie could stop her and check the content of her bowl, the four-year old jumped down from her chair and ran out of the kitchen.

Evie shook her head. "I'm gonna need a crow bar to detach her from that damn television." She grumbled, grabbing the left over bowl and standing from her chair and walking to the kitchen sink. Jamie watched as she placed the bowl into the sink with her own and then turned to face him. Her fingers tapped lightly on the wooden kitchen side, finalizing her decision silently.

"Okay," She began slowly. "I was almost run over by a car."

Jamie stared at his cousin blankly for a few moments, processing what she had just said. The teen watched the many emotions play out over his face, brown orbs widening as he took the information in. Disbelief, shock/horror and then what seemed to be a mixture of anger and worry. Of course it was now too late to go with her other plan to dismiss his accusations and concern.

He dropped his spoon into the bowl in front of him, making some of its contents splatter onto the table. His fists were clenched and after opening his mouth and shutting it a few times, he managed to splutter out a response.

"_What?_"

She interrupted him before he could say anymore. "Look, just listen to me before you freak out, okay?" Evie pleaded. Jamie unwillingly nodded, folding his arms as she continued. "I was just walking out into the road, that's all, I'd gotten the milk...everything was practically dandy, but this car just appeared from nowhere. I didn't have time to move, but uh...Jack was apparently nearby and knocked me out of the way into an alley not far behind me." She paused, eying his shocked expression.

Evie sighed. "That's how I've got the cut on my head and those few bruises. And uh, I guess how I can see Jack too. See, he came up with a theory that because you practically kept prattling on about him, I sort of, well lets say unconsciously believed in him deep down. Not enough for me to see him or hear him, but just enough for him to shove me out of the way..." She trailed off, noting the look on his face. Total disbelief and annoyance.

"I-I can't believe you just told me that nothing had happened! That none of it was a big deal!"

"Okay, it _was _a big deal, I'm sorry I didn't explain to you and tried to cover it up-"

He stood from his seat, the wooden chair he had been sitting on loudly screeched across the lino floor. Evie watched him with hurt as he began to stalk towards the direction of the hall, grumbling to himself with fury. Before he made it to the kitchen door, she sprung forwards and stopped him.

"I didn't want to just tell you right then and there, Jamie! It was half seven in the evening, I couldn't just tell you _right then and there, _could I? I mean, I was trying to get my head wrapped around it all _myself_. I'm sorry that I lied, okay? I didn't want to worry you."

Silence fell over the pair, the only noise being heard in the house came from the living room where Sophie and the television were located. Both cousins stared at each other for a few moments, letting Evie's explanation settle in the tense atmosphere. Jamie's stare was scrutinizing, the hurt and anger still evident in his brown orbs. Seconds passed, which felt more like minutes to Evie, and Jamie finally shook his head. The eleven year old swung his arm forwards, punching her relatively hard in the arm.

Evie winced, his punch making impact with a bruised area of her right arm, but didn't utter out a complaint.

"You're an _idiot._" He grumbled. Before she could say another word, he flung his arms around her, grasping onto the teen tightly and burying his head into her shoulder. She didn't hesitate as she wound her arms around the boy, resting her chin on the top of his unruly brown hair. A sad but relieved smile appeared on her tired face.

"I know."

* * *

There was something about Josh Barker that threw Evie off, something that she couldn't put her finger on.

Maybe it was his appearance. Dirty blonde hair, dark brown eyes which almost appeared back and a tall stature. Eye candy, undoubtedly, which made the girls at Burgess High fall at his feet. The popular kids, mainly the jocks, had already gotten their claws into the boy. Inviting him to lunch, asking him to try out for the football team, coaxing him into coming to an upcoming party that was likely to involve drink and awkward teen sex.

She cringed.

Despite his somewhat 'pretty' features, his attire was a little different from some of the other meat heads who belonged outside on the school's football pitch. Skinny jeans, leather jackets, a cigarette between his lips at intervals in the day. The general, 'bad boy' look, or whatever he was trying to achieve, was noticeable. The girls at Evie's school totally digged it.

But he couldn't seem to care less, and _that _is what intrigued Evie the most.

He wasn't rude to them, not at all. He accepted their invites to lunch, he politely turned down the offer to join the football team. He agreed to make an appearance at their party. But he didn't seem so attached to any of them he didn't seem to _c__are. _He was just there, amongst it all, not really making many real connections to anyone. It seemed as if he was just talking and hanging around to pass the time.

"So, _Josh_." Frankie began, leaning back on a chair in the middle of the room, drumsticks in both of her hands as she tapped them together several times. Her piercing gaze fixed on the blonde boy, a coy smirk on her face. "I hear you play the bass. Think you're any good?"

Josh stared back at the girl, his lips twitching slightly as he leaned forwards, forearms resting on his thighs. His dirty-blonde hair fell slightly over his face.

"I guess you could say, but I'm not gonna big myself up. I'm alright."

Frankie nodded to herself, muttering softly. "Modest...huh. We can deal with modest, it's better than cockiness." She then paused. "What music do you listen to?"

"Eh, it ranges from Jimmi Hendrix, Blink, Oasis, AC/DC and-"

Harley interrupted, her blue eyes wide. "You like Paramore?"

"Yep."

The brunette grinned, leaning back into her seat, her arms folded as she nodded quickly. "I like him already-"

"_Harley, _jeez! We haven't even heard him play," She glared at her friend before turning her attention back to Josh. "A good, wide range in music. Great taste, by the way."

Josh gave a crooked grin. "Thanks."

Evie hadn't said a word yet in the discussion so far, and this seemed to annoy Frankie when she noticed this. The red-haired girl was sitting at the side of the garage on a large chest, head down slightly and tuning an acoustic guitar. Her mind was wandering, far away from the group and their discussion. Her face showed no trace of emotion, appearing blank and distant as she stared away.

"Hey, _shitwad_," Frankie growled over to her quiet friend. "Any input here?"

The red-haired teen turned her blank gaze onto her friend, eyebrow cocked. Pushing herself off of the chest, she made her way towards the group, shaking her had as she responded with a roll of her eyes.

"Uh, let him _play?_ He may be all awesome and sweet, but right now, his bass-playing skills matter the most. I'm also sure the guy's a little tired of you interrogating him, right, Josh?" She smiled a little at the blonde haired-boy, gently plucking a few of the strings on her guitar and creating a small, sweet melody. Josh returned the smile, eagerly nodding. Mitch grunted in agreement, Harley murmuring a happy response. Only a huff came from Frankie.

Pursing her lips, Evie removed the guitar that she was holding, placing it down beside Harley and heading over towards an amp around two meters away from the group. She stooped down and flicked a few switches, turned two dials and stood, holding the amp lead that was already connected to the electronic equipment. Evie swung the lead over towards Josh, who caught it with a wide grin on his face. She headed back over as he leaned down and retrieved his bass from the case beside him.

"Play whatever you want, unless anyone makes a request or two. Make it a little quick, though. As much as I hate to be a drag, I've got two kids to feed." She murmured, watching as he inserted the lead in his bass guitar.

**DID I MENTION THAT I GOT A STITCH CUDDLY TOY FOR CHRISTMAS? BEEN WAITING FOR THIS SINCE I WAS SIX, GUYS. SIX. **

**Okay, I'm going. Sam-over-and-out.  
**


	9. Chapter 9

_She couldn't hear it, she couldn't hear anything. The chaos around her, the sirens. Her screams. Everything was silent, everything before her eyes was a silent movie and she was a part of it. The protagonist that everyone was circled around and had their eyes on. _

_She knew though, which sound belonged where. Despite this eery silence, she could almost hear it all in her own head. The destruction and cries, placing the voices and sounds into the places where they were meant to be coming from. She could do it so easily, it was so fresh and clear in her mind. _

_The girl's legs kicked out wildly, she thrashed around and struggled in the bulky officer's grip. Her mouth continuously opening and closing as she screeched at him in a silent language. Tears of fury streaming down her pale face, trying to break away from his crushing hold. He was dragging her backwards, further and further away. The snow beneath their feet didn't help the girl, its icy surface not allowing her the chance to prevent herself from being dragged on. _

_Her lungs felt as if they were about to explode. She felt as if she couldn't breathe, as if she was being suffocated. Yet, she continued to scream. She continued to fight. _

Evie woke with a fright, a quiet cry escaping her lips as her eyes popped open with fear. She had shot up into feeble sitting position, her fists balled up and clutching onto the covers that were draped over her. She held on tightly to the soft fabric, shaking as the dream replayed itself in her mind. Her eyes wide and full of terror, she gazed around her surroundings. Of course she was still in her room, of course there was no chaos and destruction.

The tight, iron-hold feeling remained around her chest, making it seem harder for her to breathe properly.

The sixteen year old kicked angrily at the covers, shoving them away with disgust to the bottom of her bed. When finally as far away as she could get them, she brought her legs up to her chest and grasped onto them. Her breaths were shaky, her eyes wide as they adjusted to the darkness. Evie brought her hands to her head, tangling them in her messy hair and tugging.

"Stupid, stupid, _stupid_!" She hissed, squeezing her eyes shut before the tears could spill down onto her cheeks. She removed her hands from her hair, quickly wiping at her eyes furiously as her throat tightened. Her lips quivered, but she quickly pursed them before a whimper could even dare escape. No tears, _no tears_. She wouldn't do it, she wouldn't let the nightmares get the better of her.

Slowly opening her eyes, she tilted her head towards the window on her left hand side, gazing up at the partially drawn curtains. The moon was a soft crescent in the dark sky, peeking out from behind the wispy almost glowing clouds surrounding it. She shook her head once and swung her legs over the side of her bed, shifting herself so she was now facing the door. Evie gently scratched the back of her neck. Her eyes trailed over towards the alarm clock, reading the time. 11:10PM, she hadn't even been asleep for half an hour. With a sigh, she stood from her bed and made her way through the darkness, the partial moonlight giving her a slight guide.

Opening the door, she peeked out into the dark hall and then began set off in the direction of the staircase. On her route towards the kitchen, she froze to a stop when the sound of soft murmuring hit her ears. Her face fell into a small frown as she inclined her head in the direction of where the sound was coming from, narrowing her eyes on Jamie's bedroom door.

What was Jamie doing up so late? And who the _hell _was he talking to?

He was talking, there was no way of mistaking that. He was obviously trying to speak in hushed whispers, but Evie could still hear soft words from his conversation. The gentle laughter that he tried to cover up. And a second voice.

She didn't even hesitate as she crept forwards towards his door on her right hand side. Her lips set into a straight line, her curiosity and annoyance getting the better of her. In one smooth movement, she placed her hand on his door handle and shoved open the door without a second haste.

Jamie, sat on the end of his bed in an excited sort of crouch, his grin dropping rapidly into a look of horror after Evie made her entrance. A white-haired boy sat opposite him on the eleven year old's desk chair, the wooden back pressed against his chest as he leaned forwards, halfway between a story. And finally, to teenager's disbelief, it was snowing.

"Evie!" Jamie's eyes widened. "I-"

She wasn't paying attention though, her gaze was locked onto the falling flakes around her. It was _snowing _in her cousin's room...actually _snowing_. Not enough to create a thin layer over the surface of his bedroom floor, it was so thin and fragile. But that didn't stop her from reaching out for the falling substance. A small smile broke out on her face, so small that the two boys were likely to have not noticed it.

But the moment was short-lived when she reminded herself the time and her recent bad dream. Quickly shaking her head, she dropped her arm and leaned against the doorway and folding her arms.

"Do you two even realize the time?" She asked, her tone soft and quiet. She then stared over towards the white-haired teen, biting the inside of her cheek. What w_as _this anyway, creeping into her cousin's room at night? She turned her attention to Jamie, who seemed to be having a small debate with himself.

Jamie folded his arms also. "Yeah, but-"

"It's like, what, 11:15? Jeez, you've got school in the morning...and _you_," She glared towards Jack. "Why are you in my cousin's room, huh? How did you even get-" She paused, quickly glancing towards the open window for a moment. She scowled slightly, shaking her head. "Right, okay."

"Shouldn't _you _be asleep?" Jamie demanded, bravely speaking up.

A smug grin appeared onto Jack's pale face, an amused look glinting in his icy eyes. "Yeah, haven't you got school too?"

"Ah, good job _Captain Obvious _and your trusty little sidekick with the weird hair," She rolled her eyes. "I was asleep, but..." She trailed off, her gaze falling towards the eleven year old's open window. She needed a cup of tea, _now_. The feeling of uneasiness still set at the pit of her stomach, making her ball her fists as she cringed away from the brief, vague memories of her dream. She needed something to take the edge off of the horrible feeling.

"But _what?_" Jamie demanded, waiting for her to continue. His voice shook her from her thoughts, and she quickly swallowed, shaking her head once.

"Nothing, it doesn't matter. It's late, Jamie, go to bed. And tell your friend to leave-"

Jack stood from his seat, reaching for his staff. "I've got a _name_, princess."

As soon as he finished his sentence, she stiffened, her eyes widening for a moment before narrowing slightly into a lethal, cold glare. The uneasiness turned into solid anger, she had to bite her tongue to stop herself from screaming every single insult at him from the book.

"And so do I, _jackass_." She growled out, unable to keep her anger at bay. "Don't call me princess, alright? I've been more than patient, I've not taken that stick of yours and rammed it where the sun doesn't shine, right? It's late, I'm tired, we've all got places to be in the morning...so _leave._"

"Evie-"

"Go to sleep, squirt." Evie mumbled, cutting him off. "You don't wanna be falling asleep in class, those teachers of yours will be..." She trailed off, covering her mouth as she yawned. "...munching on your brains."

Jack smirked, swinging his staff back and forth as he paced around slowly. "No they won't, not if school's canceled."

"You're still here, Frosty?" Evie cocked an eyebrow as Jamie shrunk back into bed, pulling the covers with him. "And what do you mean by that?"

"I _mean_," He stared at her with amusement and mischief. "That I fancy giving everyone a snow day tomorrow. What do you think, _princess?_"

Evie wanted to throw herself at him and wipe that smug little smirk from his face. His cockiness and general personality made Evie want to throttle the spirit, she had enough of him and she hadn't even been around him for five minutes.

Jamie was practically over the moon. "_Yeah! Snow day!_" He laughed quietly, punching at the air.

"Great." She gave him a tight smile, nodding once. "Sounds_ great_. We'll wait and see, though. It seems like you've got a lot of work to do, _Frostbite_." She gestured towards the open window, inclining her head. Over the past few days the snow had began to melt into a slippery sort of sludge.

Jack smirked at her, his sapphire eyes glinting as he set his staff upright, leaning on it. "What, you don't think that I'll get it done in time?"

"I didn't say that."

"No, but you don't seem so convinced." He chuckled. Before either of them could say another word, a soft snore was heard nearby. Both teens turned their attention onto the sleeping boy, remaining silent for a few moments. Their gazes softened briefly before averting away from the eleven year old.

"Well," Jack murmured, barely a whisper but just enough for Evie to hear. "That's my cue to leave."

Evie watched as he retreated towards the open window, swinging his staff back and forth. She didn't breathe a word as he climbed up onto the window sill, admiring his sleek agility. The white-haired teen cast a look over his shoulder at Jamie one final time, and then onto Evie who remained standing at the doorway of her cousin's bedroom. A grin broke out across his face and to Evie's disbelief, he flashed her a wink.

She scowled, pushing away from the doorway that she had been leaning on. "Cute. Now, shut the window on your way out, you're leaving a draft." She muttered softly, turning on her heel.


	10. Chapter 10

"_Elmo, Elmo! Wake up!_"

Evie groaned as the four-year old continued to bounce on her abdomen. She tried to turn over, curl into a ball and hide herself under her covers. Her methods of defense weren't put to good use as Sophie continued to shake her cousin from her slumber. With a grunt, Evie rolled over onto her back and opened her eyes partially. What had happened to her alarm clock? Why was Sophie awake?

It was far too early for this.

Squinting up at the little girl, she groaned once again, trying to pull the words together to structure a simple sentence.

"Sophie...What?..._What?_"

The little girl squealed, awkwardly clapping her hands happily with glee, despite her injured wrist. She bounced up and down on the sixteen year old. She wasn't saying anything, she was just squealing, rambling out the occasional, random word that Evie couldn't understand. Before Evie could attempt to question her any further, another weight was flung onto the teenager, making her weakly cry out.

Jamie clambered up the bed towards his confused, tired cousin, a wicked smirk on his face. He positioned himself next to his younger sister and flicked the red-haired girl beneath him on the forehead. Evie scowled, blinking up at the pair.

"_Did my alarm clock break or something?_"

Jamie grinned, folding his arms across his chest. "Nope, go look outside-"

"_Snow day!_" Sophie shrieked happily, interrupting her brother. The four-year old shifted her weight and slid down the side of the bed towards Evie's bedroom floor, tousled blonde hair making a curtain over her face as she grinned. Jamie remained on top of his cousin, and jabbed his finger into Evie's forehead.

She glared up at him. "Do that again, _I dare you_."

The eleven year old snickered and waited for a few moments, narrowing his eyes and anticipating the moment when he was next going to strike. After a small, short-lived staring contest with her, his finger shot forward towards her forehead, but she unfortunately shot her own hand out at the last second and swatted him away.

"Ah, too slow for my ninja skills."

He rolled his eyes, swinging himself off of her bed. "You're not a ninja."

"Did you see that?" She raised an eyebrow at him, a small smirk on her face.

"See what?"

She closed her eyes, letting out a soft sigh. "Exactly."

_Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!_

Evie's alarm clock went off at that precise moment, angrily beeping out it's alarm across the room from her bed side table. After each beep from the machine, Evie became more and more awake by the second; the annoying alarm dragging her out of her previous relaxed state. From the back of the teen's throat, an angry groan that sounded also similar to a growl erupted. She buried her face into her pillow, kicking angrily at her sheets and balling up her fists.

"_No, no, no, no, __noooo!_" She moaned, trying to cover her ears. Her efforts were useless of course, so after a few seconds she reached her arm out and slammed her fist down onto the snooze button. Jamie stood beside her bed, clutching his stomach as he laughed. Evie could hear Sophie running outside in the hall, singing away about the snow that she was yet to see.

* * *

"Well, would you look at that..."

Evie stared breathlessly out across the front yard from where she stood in at the front door, golden brown eyes gleaming at the scene in front of her. A wide grin on her face, she lent against the door frame, admiring the view. Just outside the Bennett's front door was a winter wonderland.

Overnight Jack had went straight to work, transforming the icy, sludge filled street into a scene that you'd perhaps see on a Christmas card. The ground was blanketed in a thick, heavy layer of snow, left untouched in many areas as it had not been discovered yet by everyone in the neighborhood. The air was crisp and clear, the sky above covered completely up with soft, gray clouds. Light, fragile flakes fluttered down above her, similar to how the snow had lightly fell in Jamie's bedroom the night before.

"Cute pajamas."

Evie jumped slightly, whipping her head in the direction of the voice. To the right of where she stood, Jack was perched on the white porch railing, staff in hand. His blue hood was up, covering parts of his face, but Evie could clearly see the smirk on his face and the glint of amusement in his crystal eyes. She looked down to her night wear, trailing her eyes down across the snowflake covered, long-sleeved shirt and blue flannel pajama pants.

She looked back up at him, eyebrow raised. "Ah, thanks. Cute..." She trailed off, dramatically pausing as her eyes trailed up and down the white-haired spirit. Biting the inside of her cheek, she shook her head. "Well, that's awkward. _Never mind_." She shrugged, averting her gaze back to the snow.

He flashed her a mock hurt expression, pushing off from the porch railing. "Trying to say I'm not cute, princess?"

"Talking freezers don't fit into the fluffy category," She murmured, watching as he paced forwards a couple of steps.

"Aw, now that hurt." He pressed a hand to his chest, directly over his heart.

"You'll get over it." She paused. "Good job with the snow, Jamie and Sophie are bouncing off the walls."

The fake upset look on his face melted into a genuine smile. "Thanks, I'm glad you all like my handy work."

She nodded, folding her arms across her chest as she stared off into the distance. School was likely to be cancelled today, which gave her a glimmer of hope to possibly climb back into bed. But of course, it was also likely that Sophie would make Evie take her out into the winter weather to play.

"Evie, make us pancakes!" Jamie yelled from the kitchen, snapping Evie out of her thoughts. The teen groaned, turning slightly to peer into the hall inside and in the general direction of the kitchen. She gently thumped her head against the wooden door frame of the front door. Of course, pancakes.

She yelled back her response. "It's not pancake day!"

Jamie ran out from the kitchen and towards the front door to where his cousin stood. "It's _always _pancake day!"

**Right, a shortish chapter. It was longer and had Jack sitting up at the breakfast table with Jamie, Evie and Sophie, eating pancakes and all...but it just dragged out too far. I kind of think of these chapters as little fill-ins between the future chapters that are more interesting, so sorry if they're not exactly up to scratch or boring.**** Happy new year to you all, hope you all have a great year.  
**


	11. Chapter 11

Evie lay with her younger cousin in the thick blanket of snow across the street from the Bennett's back yard, staring up at the wispy clouds above them that were slowly clearing away after Jack's work throughout the night. The sun was peeking out from behind the cloud cover, shining down and making the snow around them seem to sparkle.

"Mine's not as big as yours!"

Sophie was waving her arms up against the snow towards her head and back down to her sides, her legs doing essentially the same thing. Her movements were frantic and full of effort as she tried her best to make her wings big like Evie's. With a huff, she finally gave up. Her older cousin turned her head towards her, chuckling.

"That's because you're littler than me, Soph." Evie murmured, turning her head back towards the sky and staring up at it thoughtfully. "One day you'll be able to make snow angels with _giant _wings."

Propping herself up on her elbows, Sophie's eyes gleamed. "Really?"

"Yep, one day, but don't wish away your little angel too soon, you'll miss her."

Not another word was said between the two girls, Evie continuing to stare at the sky with a ghost of a smile on her lips while Sophie puzzled over Evie's cryptic advice. The moment was rather peaceful and calm, and for a minute, just a minute, Evie was at ease from her terrible dream. She almost forgot.

But that moment was short-lived.

"_Quit it!_" She heard a child whine, not far away from where she and Sophie lay. Distress and annoyance were weaved in with the boy's words, but it was almost as if he was pleading. She also recognized the boy's voice as one of Jamie's friends that had tried to pelt her with snowballs not long after she had arrived. Her brow furrowed for a moment before she shrugged off his plead, smiling slightly as she simply assumed he was fed up of being a target for snowballs.

Sitting up, she stared down at Sophie. "What now, Blondie? We've helped made another snowman-"

"Mrs. Snowman." Sophie interrupted, giggling.

"Right, yeah," Evie rolled her eyes. "and we've made snow angels too...so, whatcha thinking? Sledging? Snowball fight? Or do you wanna go back indoors and veg out in front of the TV?"

The four-year old pursed her lips, deciding on what they were next going to do. "Can we play with Jamie? When Jamie puts me on his board," She explained, a small smile growing on her lips. "we go down the hill real fast!"

"Sure, as long as he doesn't mind." Eve grinned, pushing herself up from the ground and holding her hand out towards the little girl. Sophie took it and a shriek of giggles escaped her lips as Evie swung her up from the snow. The two then walked hand in hand with their sledges towards the kids that were around the other side of a large mound of snow, out of sight. The sound of disruption could be heard from the kids and as the two cousins rounded the corner of the mound, a frown set onto the teenager's face.

Jamie stood with his friends in a sort of unorganized, jumbled semi-circle. Each of the kids stood with an odd stance, their discomfort and distress visible in their demeanor. She recognized all the children standing there, except three, who were the ones standing before Jamie and his friends. The three boys, who Evie had never seen before with her cousin, had their arms folded and sneers on their faces. The way they stood, the way the stared at the kids before them made her feel uneasy and if anything annoyed. As if there was a bad presence radiating from each of them.

And down on the blanket of snow between the kids was a broken wooden sledge.

"What're you gonna do about it, huh?" The blonde boy of the three kids questioned, his tone daring and full of mockery. As the girls walked further towards the small group, Evie could feel Sophie tugging her back, clearly reluctant to go onwards. Evie flashed the blonde a quick, reassuring look and squeezed her hand. Turning her head back towards the group, her eyes scanned the area and caught a glimpse of blue and brown, noting the winter spirit's presence. She met his crystal eyes briefly, biting the inside of her cheek. From the look on his face, Jack seemed a mixture of aggravated and concerned. Her eyes slid back onto the children once again.

One of Jamie's friends, a girl who Evie recognized as Pippa, nudged her younger cousin to get his attention when she saw the teen and the blonde little girl approaching. Jamie snapped his head quickly towards his cousin, eyes widening slightly and then averting his gaze back towards the three boys. The majority of the kids turned their heads in the general direction of the two cousins as Jamie grumbled lowly to the three boys before him.

"Just leave it." He muttered, about to turn to scamper off. Before he could so much as take a step away from the group, Evie joined the children, still keeping a tight hold onto Sophie's hand.

"Just leave _what?_" She asked skeptically, eying the brown-haired boy. Jamie didn't meet her gaze as she stared him down, eventually moving her eyes away from him and to the rest of the group. His friends seemed a little more at ease now that she had arrived, shrinking back slightly away from the three boys, who were still standing with their arms folded.

One of them, a boy with black hair and the clear leader of the three spoke up. "And who are _you _supposed to be?"

Evie flashed him a tight smile, staring the dark-haired boy down. "I asked a question first, kid, but seeing though you're so _interested_ to know, I'm Evie." She paused. "So is anyone going to tell me what the heck is going on? Who's sled is that?"

She didn't get an answer from any of them. Jamie and his friends remained silent, as if they were almost scared to speak up and the three boys, who Evie was growing increasingly annoyed with, defiantly ignored the question. She wanted to wipe the sneers from their faces, but before she could raise another question Sophie squeaked from beside her.

"That's Jamie's board."

Jamie groaned, glaring down at the four-year old. "_Sophie! _Shut up-"

"_Hey,_" Evie cut him off, narrowing her eyes slightly on her cousin. "Don't speak to her like that. Why is your board in pieces, huh?" Out of the corner of her eye she saw a flash of blue and brown as Jack shifted his stance, but ignored the spirit, eyes fixed on her cousin. "Jamie, what happened?"

"Nothing, just leave it." Jamie replied, forcing himself to shrug his shoulders. He continued to not stare her in the eyes, his brown orbs trailing around the area at everything but the teen. Brow furrowing further with concern, she opened her mouth the speak but was interrupted.

"Yeah," One of the boys from the three agreed with Jamie. "Just _leave it, Evie_."

The teen turned her golden brown orbs towards the boy, the look of concern melting into a cold, hard glare that silenced the black haired boy in an instant. His green eyes widened slightly, fear clear on his face for a moment, no matter how hard he tried to hide it.

"Is your name Jamie, pipsqueak? Did I _ask _you what happened, hmm? I'll tell you what, sunshine, how about _you _tell me exactly what happened. It seems as though you've got so much to say, seeing though you can't keep your trap shut...so go on, _shoot_."

"Don't speak to me like that, bitch-!" The boy sneered back bravely. Before he could continue, Evie barked out a small, humorless laugh and cut him off, shaking her head with anger. She couldn't _believe _he'd just challenged her, had just _sworn _in front of Sophie. She didn't care if he was Jamie's age, they had minutes to get away before she would drop kick them into the snow.

"Oh, _dude_, how _old a_re you?" She demanded, pushing Sophie behind her slightly. "Do you really think swearing when you're what, _nine_, makes you look cool? Does it make you look like a big man? Because from where I'm standing, it makes you look pathetic and even more of a little kid. I mean, _Jesus, _there's a four-year old here-"

This time, the boy interrupted her, scowling. "Like I give a crap."

Seconds, mere _seconds _before she would ram his small, screwed up face into the snow. He didn't give a crap? She would _make _him give a crap, she would _make _him sorry, the little brat. She often forget that 60% of kids were like this, downright rude, brat-like and full of complete crap because it's cool to grow up fast these days. From what she could remember, she had _never _challenged someone older than her before, none of her friends had either. They never swore at each other or anyone else just because they thought it was cool or that they _could_, not even the bullies.

Removing her hand from Sophie's, Evie gently placed her gloved hands over Sophie's small ears, cold look still in her eyes and she leaned forward towards the boys and over Sophie.

"Oh, you will give a crap, angel face." She smiled down at him, her tone soft but her words laced with sharpness. "Because you've all got five seconds to scram before your asses are mine."

One boy ran, the one on the left that flanked the black-haired brat who had challenged her. The leader of the group turned his head after him, anger and if anything, _fear _in his eyes. As if his friend had betrayed him. He turned to face her again, fists clenched as she smirked.

"Five..._four_," She drawled out, licking her lips a little. "_Three-_"

The blonde one who stood beside the black-haired boy shook his head. "Dude, _you're own your own!_" He declared before hurrying off after his retreating friend. Evie kept her gaze locked on the last boy though, raising her eyebrows at him as she waited for him to do the same. She could see that he was trying to stop himself from shaking, trying to appear brave.

"Two."

Shaking his head, the kid took a step away from the group, eyes burning with anger. He knew that there was no way he would be able to get away with this, as it was him against all the other children _and _the teenager. Without his friends, he was defenseless and being defiant wasn't going to help him in this circumstances.

With a sneer, he opened his mouth to speak. "Alright, _I'm going_. Bye losers, have fun with your imaginary friends...we'll see you at school tomorrow." He wickedly grinned at the children in front of him, before turning on his heel and jogging after his friends. As he went on his way, Evie not removing her burning glare from the back of his head, something flew out in front her line of vision towards the boy. The snowball plummeted shockingly fast towards the kid, whooshing through the air at an unstoppable speed.

It was also targeted perfectly, hitting the brat square in the back of his head.

"Ugh!" The boy cried out, staggering forwards a little and reaching his hand up to the back of his head as he steadied himself. He snapped his head around to grimace at the group, eyes green eyes blazing as the group erupted with laughter. Evie turned her head towards them all in surprise, blinking up at the white-haired spirit. He was laughing, one hand placed on his hip as he leaned against his wooden staff. A victorious grin tugged on his pale lips, his sapphire eyes gleaming with wickedness and amusement.

His crystal orbs trailed over the children around him, and then finally up to Evie, catching her staring at him with bemusement as a soft giggle escaped her lips. She watched as his eyes softened slightly, chuckling along with the group as Sophie began to tug on Evie's scarf. The teenager averted her gaze away to the angry boy who was glaring at them all, shaking with rage as he yelled:

"I'll get you for this, Bennett!"

Many of Jamie's friends still laughing, he bolted after his friends, stomping his booted feet through the white substance and kicking it into the air. As the children thanked Jack, including Jamie despite the still tense look on his face, Sophie impatiently tugged Evie's scarf, whining at her cousin to listen to her.

"Elmo..._Elmo!_ What does '_b-itch_' mean?" The little girl inquired, staring up at Evie with curious, forest green eyes.

**It's been far, far to long since I last updated. I apologize for that, was finishing sitting some exams and then after all of that I've had to deal with some family problems. I have more exams in a few months time but don't worry, I plan on making several more updates before then. Sorry for the long wait and if this chapter isn't exactly up to scratch, hope you had and excellent pancake day if you celebrated it and managed to avoid those awful videos of girls eating disgusting things and doing unspeakable things to animals. Oh, and also, hope some of you people in the UK have managed to avoid Tesco's burger shenanigans...DAMMIT TESCO, STOP HORSING AROUND. **

**Baaaadum-dum tiiiiiiiiiiiiss. Okay, I'll stop being all up to date and weird.  
**

**Kidding, one final thing: Jennifer Lawrence for Pope. Yes. **


	12. Chapter 12

Evie had settled Sophie into bed finally after the day's snow filled excitements. The little girl had continued to question repeatedly what the little brat had called the teen earlier, for Evie to only brush off until it eventually got to the point where she had to sit down with Sophie and explain.

'_It can mean two things, kid. A girl dog...or a very, very mean name. You mustn't go around calling people that, because it's rude and you'll get in trouble.'_

Sophie understood, but then started to pester her cousin with questions about the family's greyhound, Abby, seeing though female dogs were brought into the conversation. Supposedly, Abby had 'disappeared' according to Jamie, and had been gone since two weeks before Evie had come to Burgess. Sophie didn't really understand what had happened, as Marie and Jamie had been vague with the information they'd given the four-year old.

So, to answer Sophie's question the teen had sort of shrugged and stated that Abby was on an adventure and hopefully she would come back when the time was ready. No one knew if the poor dog was still alive, but Sophie didn't have to know that.

"So," Evie began, flopping down into the arm-chair in the living room. Jamie was seated on the couch, intently watching the television. He didn't turn his attention towards his cousin, but Evie had a hunch that he knew what she was about to say. "Are you gonna tell me who those little punks were?"

He shrugged after a few moments, not throwing a single glance at her. "Some kids from school."

"I see. I take it they're not your pals, seeing though they thought it'd be hilarious to smash your sled up." She noted, carefully watching as the recognition and worry flashed across his face. He quickly, although not very well, tried to cover this up with a void expression. She'd already noticed something odd by his reaction, so the attempt to be dismissive towards it ultimately failed.

"It was an accident-"

"Like _hell _it was an accident!" She scoffed, interrupting him. "And by the way the little twerps were acting, they seemed if anything pleased with their handy work. Is there something you're not telling me?"

Finally, he turned to me, a warning glare in his eyes. "No, there isn't. Just leave it, Evie. It doesn't matter, I barely know them. There are other sleds, I don't see what the problem is."

"What the_ problem_ is? Jamie," She shook her head, leaning forwards and resting her forearms on her knees. "the problem is, if it was such an accident, then they would apologize. They'd not intimidate you or your friends and act as if the situation was some sort of big_ joke_. And you know what? It's not funny, especially when they stand there and act as if they're the big guys, swearing in front of us all, in front of _Sophie_. Urgh, if I'd have been around them any longer..." She trailed off, her fists clenching tightly as a deep scowl formed on her lips. Before she could rant about the boys, her eyes flashed across the carpet towards one of Jamie's lone action figures that he'd left discarded.

They were just kids, that's all. _Kids would be kids_, and as much as Evie hated that old saying, it was true. Sitting there and grumbling away about how she was going to quite possibly drop kick them if she ever had the misfortune of crossing paths with them again would not help Jamie. Because, as much as he tried to deny it, there was something wrong. Whether they were just some kids from his school, as he'd said, or bullies...taking things into her own hands wouldn't help. And besides, she couldn't beat up or threaten kids that were Jamie's age, that would just be unfair.

She glanced back up to Jamie, who was eying her warily. The only thing she could do now, with little knowledge of the situation, was to offer him help. Give him the opportunity to end whatever was happening.

"Look, kid," She began gently, giving him a small, encouraging smile. "If anything's happening to you, or even your friends...you can tell me. Like, I know that it's not cool or whatever to fess up to an adult, or your crazy yet freakishly _awesome _cousin," She winked at him, noting the small grin that he tried to hide. "but it's okay to talk. Talking's good. There's nothing wrong with speaking up about whatever concerns you, or asking questions."

He rolled his eyes. "Evie-"

"_Soooo_," She cut him off quickly. "before you freak out on me and tell me that I know _nothing _and to get out of your face, just know that I'm here if you ever need to vent or talk. I'm always here, Jay, never forget that. And you can push me away and deny if something's going on, I can't exactly force you to tell me what's wrong, but just remember what I've told you."

He looked a little guilty, pursing his lips before nodding once. "Okay."

"Great, _awesome_, fan-fricken-_tastic_. Haven't you got homework to do, pipsqueak? And where's that little snow pixie hiding?"

"Jack's had to go off to the UK for a couple of hours, he says that it's not exactly Spring just yet, so he wanted to and give them all one last blast of Winter." He explained, clearly avoiding the subject of his homework. Evie cocked an eyebrow at the explanation, smirking slightly. It seemed like a pretty devious thing to do, as Easter was coming up soon.

She then tried to remove the smirk from her lips, staring at the eleven year old sternly. "_Jamie_, go do your homework before I do something cruel like make you do some chores."

"No way!"

"Are you deaf, rag-bag? The mantle is looking pretty dusty, y'know-"

He had shot up from the couch and out of the living room before she could finish her sentence.

* * *

When Evie had woken the next morning, she had to her despair a very terrible headache. She hauled herself out of bed, taken some aspirin and woken the kids up; trying to stay positive to continue with the day. Unfortunately, it didn't work and she had to take into account that the headache wasn't going away any time soon and going to school would only make things worse. So after dropping the kids off, she hurried back home and crawled into her bed, attempting to sleep.

That hadn't worked either.

So when she was standing in the kitchen, making herself a cup of tea and letting the aspirin do it's work, (as lousy and slowly as it could), she gained a visitor.

"Not at school today, princess?"

She jumped, spilling hot water from the kettle but managing to dodge it. How had he even got in here? She spun around, careful not to spill any more water, glaring at the white-haired teen. He was stood beside the door, which he'd left open, staff in hand and with a lop-sided smile intact on his pale face. _The door, of course _she thought to herself bitterly.

Licking her lips, she shook her head and turned away. "Do you always creep in here during the day? Close the door, this isn't a barn and you know what, it's _freezing_." She mumbled, continuing to pour her drink. She heard him shut it close and then spoke again. "Want a drink? Tea? Coffee?"

A chuckle was heard, along with the sound of a chair being pulled from the table. "You're offering me a drink? I'm not sure if you're kidding or being serious, but that was sort of cute."

She rolled her eyes, throwing him a glance over her shoulder as she went to get the milk. "I was only being polite. I know I can be a bit of a sarcastic little scumbag at times, but really, I have manners." She paused for a moment. "Do you want something or not?"

"I've never really tried either of them before." He admitted. Evie could hear the sort of embarrassment in his words but chose to ignore it as he went on. "The only hot drinks I've tried is eggnog and hot chocolate. I liked them."

The sixteen year old wrinkled her nose, a little disgusted by one of his choices. Eggnog. _Urgh_. She shook her head slightly, staring up at the cupboards as she stirred her drink. "We have hot chocolate,"

"Right..."

"Well, would you _like _some or _not_?" She asked, raising an eyebrow at him. She sure wasn't going to stand there stirring her drink all day, so he had to make a decision before she got bored and left. He quickly nodded, muttering a polite '_yes, please_' and she turned to make it.

Minutes later, she turned with both hot drinks and sat at the kitchen table opposite him, placing the mugs down between then. Evie brought her leg up onto the chair, bringing it close to her chest and raising the mug to her lips. Jack awkwardly did the same, seemingly out of place in Marie's little kitchen. It was silent for a few moments, but the atmosphere wasn't awkward, neither tense between the two. She leaned back into the wooden chair, gently tapping her fingers against the Bugs Bunny mug in her hands.

"You never said why you were off today," He noted after swallowing a mouthful of his drink. "You actually sick or are you being naughty and ditching school?"

She rolled her eyes. "Killer headache, I figured that going to school and dealing with its delights wouldn't help at all." Evie paused, wincing slightly as a flash of pain erupted through her head. Jack noticed the brief expression, his own turning to concern as she leaned forwards in her seat. Her head fell into her open hand and she sat that way for a few moments, blinking as she tried to concentrate on the wooden pattern on the kitchen table.

"Are you alright?"

She hissed as another stab of pain came again, this time making her eyes flutter shut. The hand that held her drink tightened around the warm mug, squeezing onto hot surface. She could only nod and grumble about the good for nothing aspirin that she'd taken. It was silent for a few more moments as the pain began to fade slightly, only leaving a numb, ghost-like presence in its wake. She finally sat up, peering at the spirit and leaning back into her seat. Jack was still staring at her with a little worry, leaning forwards in his seat. His pale hands were rested on either side of his mug of hot chocolate, which he'd taken a few sips out of already.

"So, Jack Frost." She drawled out slowly, tapping the side of her mug softly with the tips of her nails. She wasn't sure how to continue, and this made her sort of want to laugh at the situation and the scene. A teenage girl sitting across from a white-haired boy, who claimed and had valid proof to be _'Old Man Winter'_ (she was passed the point of assuming she'd fallen into a coma or had gone insane- although, the coma sounded more acceptable to her), at a loss to say. What could she really say?

_So, how is life for 'ya?  
_

That'd be great, wouldn't it? Asking a spirit how life was. Jeez.

Instead, she chose her words much more carefully. "What's it like? Being a Guardian, I mean. Must be cool, being the chief commander of 'fun' and all..."

Jack smirked slightly, his eyes glinting with amusement. "Chief commander?"

"What's wrong with that? I could have said something that would have made you sound like a fairy or something!"

"Sure, a fairy." He rolled his eyes, taking a drink from the mug. "And it's pretty cool, actually. A big responsibility, one that I wasn't really ready to take...but I'm glad that I was chosen. Before I wasn't so excited to be one,"

Evie raised her eyebrows a little. "How come?"

"I wasn't really one for being _responsible _or sticking to rules." He chuckled, peering into the chocolate drink in front of him. Evie cocked her head to the side slightly, watching as he traced his finger over the rim of the mug. She could relate to that entirely. With a soft chuckle, she spoke.

"Same."

Jack blinked up at her, confusion in his crystal orbs. Before he could ask the meaning behind her answer and before she could even continue, the telephone in the hall rang. Evie groaned slightly when a sharp flash of pain coursed through her head, but she ignored it as she slid down from her chair and headed in the direction of the ringing phone. Jack smiled slightly as she muttered under her breath about it likely to be a cold caller. Marie often got those, as Evie had discovered when she started to live here.

Picking up the telephone, the sixteen year old pressed the phone to her ear. "Hello?"

"_Is this Mrs. Bennett?_"

Evie straightened slightly, peering towards the door. "No, she's away. Speaking?"

"_I'm calling from Burgess Middle School to tell you that the principal, Ms. Woodburn, requires for a parent or guardian to come down here as soon as possible for student Jamie Bennett._"

**I'm sorry for not updating in a while. Sigh. Moved house and shazz, but now I'm on holiday so expect a couple of updates. I hope /3 **

**Thought I'd throw the UK in there, as I'm sure Jack has totally been trolling us for the past couple of weeks leading up to Easter. Seriously, the weather was bipolar, it was beautiful sunshine but it was like walking through a snow globe at some points. It never really laid either, may I add. Which was, of course, disappointing.  
**

**I'm pretty sure Bunny was going to backhand him for holding back Spring for a couple of weeks. I think it literally stopped on Easter Day. Hm. I'm not sure if any of you guys in other countries got a blast of this odd, last Winter weather, but I hope you all had a brilliant Easter :) **


	13. Chapter 13

"No, I'm sorry, but there's a piece of information missing here." Evie shook her head, one arm perched on the arm of the seat that she was sitting in, the other raised slightly as she rotated it. "You're saying that Jamie caused this fight, but was actually dragged out of a dumpster when it was broken up?"

She'd gotten down to the middle school as quickly as she could, barely having enough time to cram her feet into her shoes, let alone explain to Jack the situation. When she arrived, she was shocked to discover that Jamie wasn't in pain, didn't have any serious injuries...but was actually in the principal's office for being in trouble.

Jamie, the quiet boy who wouldn't say boo to a goose.

The woman's office seemed to bring back unpleasant memories to Evie of her earlier school. It seemed as if they were all the same; uncomfortable chairs, large desk planted in the center of the room, quirky but typically motivational posters hung on the walls. The smell of the lunch from the cafeteria beginning to be made drifting down the halls and into the room.

The whole situation wasn't helping Evie's headache either.

"Miss...?"

"Grayson."

"Right, Miss. Grayson. Are you Jamie's guardian?" Ms. Woodburn inquired. The teen hesitated for a moment, unsure on whether she could really call it that. She was only if anything looking after the kids while Marie was out of the state, wasn't she? But yet, she also did have a big responsibility over her two cousins.

Evie nodded. "Yes, I am. Jamie's mom had to urgently leave a week or so ago for family reasons outside the state, but I'm sure you're aware of this because Marie informed the school before she left." The principal felt impressed by the girl's mature, authoritative tone.

"Yes, that is correct, Miss. Grayson. As I understand, you are Jamie's cousin?"

"Yes." Evie started to feel impatient, throwing a glance towards the eleven-year old beside her. He was slumped in his chair, a small scowl on his face. He didn't meet her gaze. The teen sighed, and then stared back up at the principal, swallowing. "So, as I was saying, he was in a fight?"

Ms. Woodburn slowly nodded. "Yes, reportedly. Although, that, and the fact he was pulled out of the dumpster at the back of the school, are the only pieces of information that we really know. Not any of the boys involved are confessing to what had really happened."

The teen couldn't believe what she was hearing. _Reportedly in a fight, but rescued from the pits of a dumpster at the back of the school, with basically no inside of what had really happened_.

How the hell was he the one in trouble here?

"Surely, with barely enough information on the 'fight'," She began, slowly, gaze boring into the woman. "Jamie isn't the one going to be punished here, right?"

Ms. Woodburn leaned forward in her chair, pursing her lips together for a moment. "I'd like to say yes, but this isn't the first fight that Jamie has been involved in. But of course, with not enough knowledge of the incident, and if none of the boys are doing to confess...I can only issue each of them two after school detentions."

_Only? _

No, something certainly wasn't right here. Jamie wasn't a troublemaker, he wasn't like _Evie_. He wasn't one to fight or get landed with detentions. Sure, maybe for some pieces of late homework, but fighting? If the situation wasn't so serious and tense then the teenager would have laughed about it. If anything, it was ridiculous. If whatever Evie has partly assumed in her head was actually what happened, Jamie shouldn't be the one being punished.

And she wasn't going to let the principal issue him detentions just yet, at least not until she had managed to squeeze out every single bit of information from her cousin.

Turning to the brown-haired boy beside her, Evie narrowed her eyes. She could see some stains and patches of dirt that he'd received from his trip into the dumpster and smell a lingering stench of garbage radiating from him. If he had done something or commenced a fight, then detention was what he deserved. But at the pit of her stomach, the sixteen year old knew that he hadn't and there was much more to this story that the boy's were letting up on.

"Jamie," She began gravely, turning slightly more in her chair. "this is important, alright? You need to tell your principal, or _me_, what happened this morning."

He didn't respond to her demand, staring down at the carpeted, off-colored floor between his sneakers and the principal's desk. His hair looked as if it had been pulled; all roughed up and sticking out in places. There was even a hole directly in front of his knee cap on his pants, presumably from where he'd scraped it in the 'fight'.

Chewing the inside of her cheek, Evie continued. "Sitting and giving everyone the silent treatment won't help, Jamie. I know damn well that you've got something to say, and pretending that you haven't and blocking everyone else out isn't the best thing for you now."

Ms. Woodburn watched the two cousins with a little pity, her arms folded in front of her on her wooden desk. She could see the sibling like bond between the two and felt slight remorse when she saw the hurt in the teenager's eyes. The principal herself felt the same as the girl and if anything felt positive that Jamie wasn't the catalyst of the morning's incident. But, with not enough information from the fight she was only able to treat the children equally and issue them all detentions.

"_Jamie!_" Evie hissed, the hurt disappearing from her eyes to disappointment. Ms. Woodburn let a sigh escape her lips and began to gather some papers on her desk, tidying her work area up as she spoke to the cousin of her student.

"I am suspending Jamie for the rest of the day, Miss. Grayson, but he is able to return tomorrow. He will recieve two detention slips over the course of the following days at school and expect to hear from me also. I take it you will be informing his mother?"

Evie had turned away from the boy, her gaze now focussing on the dark-skinned woman. Out of the corner of her eye though, she saw her cousin jolt up slightly at what his principal had just said.

The red-haired girl nodded once. "Oh, I have every intention to." She reassured the woman, standing from her seat. "C'mon, Jamie." She drawled, not even throwing a glance at the eleven year old. She shook Ms. Woodburn's hand and turned to leave, Jamie trailing after her.

When they stepped outside the principal's office, Evie was surprised to see the three brats from the day before, slouched on the small row of chairs that were pressed up against the wall. They looked uninterested to be there, bored of what had happened and it just seemed to make the teenager more angry. Their beady little eyes turned on the cousins and immediately, two of the boys straightened in their seats, a little alarmed. Of course they hadn't forgotten Evie's threatening nature from yesterday, but the black-haired little weasel obviously had. He seemed to sink lower in his chair, smirking at Evie and raising his eyebrows.

She gave him a tight smile back, a grim expression visible on her face. She would get into so much trouble, an unbelievable amount of trouble if she went over to him, threw him off his chair and dragged him in the direction of the nearest trash can. She shoved Jamie forwards, ignoring his grunt as he staggered forwards, half-way between snagging his backpack higher onto his shoulders.

* * *

Evie had ignored him the entire way home, her headache now seeming to split open her skull as she drove. Jamie sat in the backseat of the car, sulking. She didn't take her eyes off of the road, annoyed by his behavior and dismissive attitude. She'd had to practically throw him into the car; he'd refused to get in until she promised that she wouldn't tell his mother. Which of course, she'd laughed at him and shoved him into the back.

Like _hell _she wouldn't.

"You can't tell her, Evie." He mumbled. "And quit ignoring me!"

She barked out a laugh, shaking her head and grimacing at him through the rear-view mirror. "You're telling _me _to stop ignoring you? You're unbelievable, Jamie. I had to just sit in that damn office, with a splitting headache may I add, trying to stick up for you. Because we all damn well _know _that you didn't start that fight-!"

"Whatever, alright? Just don't tell her! You'll make her worried and-" He cut her off, but this time, she interrupted him.

"Do you know _why_ she'll be worried? Jesus, Jamie, she's your mom! Of course she'll be worried! You get dragged out of a dumpster, looking in a worse state than the other boys...and you're not even defending yourself in the slightest! As if you're _afraid _to speak up!"

Jamie shook his head with anger. "I'm _not_ afraid!"

"_Really? _And I mean, it's such a coincidence that it's the same boy's from yesterday, the one's that broke your sled that your _dad _made, involved in the fight. Let me guess, it was an _accident_ that they threw you into the dumpster." She scoffed, turning into the street where the Bennett's home was located.

"You know _nothing_, Evie! So stop trying to butt in-!"

She groaned. "So why don't you _tell _me? Jamie, for fuck sake! This is serious, this goes down on a record! I know that you're not a bully," She snapped, pulling into the drive. "I know you're not a troublemaker or someone to start a fight, and you know that too. So why the _hell _are you letting some stupid kids in your school ruining your reputation?"

"A reputation for being a little _nerd?_" He muttered in defeat, glaring out the window. He didn't make a move to unbuckle his seat belt, and neither did Evie. She sighed, cutting the ignition.

"No, a nice kid. Jamie, if you act or in this case, let yourself be assumed to be like one of those kids who cause nothing but chaos in a school...people will start to treat you like it. Believe me, it's not fun being stuck in detention, being secluded from the rest of the class and even in worse cases, being expelled. This goes down in records, it get's passed on to high school, onto college...do you want people to simply mark you down as one of the delinquents?"

He remained silent for a few moments, staring outside where the snow was already melting in the front yard. Eventually a minute passed and giving up, Evie unbuckled her seat belt and removed the keys but before she could climb out, Jamie spoke.

"Middle school isn't the same as Elementary." He mumbled softly. "People don't play together anymore, they don't enjoy things like they used to. They don't...believe." Evie slumped back into the driver's seat, eyes widening as he continued. "They did before, but now everyone seems to have grown up a lot. People used to believe in them, but now they don't, and I get laughed at with my friends for talking about them."

She pursed her lips. "You mean the Guardians? Jack?"

"They can't see him, so it looks as if we've just got an imaginary friends. And that, well, makes us all look nuts. And Jack can't do anything to stop them, because...because if they can't see him, then they just go straight through him. The only thing he can do is pelt snowballs at them or give them a small ice burn," He chuckled a little, but it faded into the silence between us. "It sucks, but my friends sometimes think that it would be better if we all tried to forget about him and ignore him. Pretend he doesn't exist. And they expect me to do the same as well, but Evie...I just can't."

Maybe it was the way she had phrased it, or perhaps what she had said was truly offensive. But when she had said the following, this side of Jamie which had opened up to her disappeared in seconds.

"Then...don't. But maybe calm it down a little with the Guardian's thing and don't preach it to every kid you can possibly tell?"

The small, sad but hopeful look had gone seconds after she spoke, and before her eyes in the rear-view mirror he tore off his seat belt and threw open his door. Evie blinked, a little shocked by his sudden outburst and followed suit, a little more robotically than her cousin. She yelled after him and he turned to her, golden-brown orbs blazing with hurt and betrayal. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Jack appear on the rail of the porch, crouched on the beam and holding his staff.

"_Preach it? _I'm trying to get people to believe in Jack, because only a few actually do!" He yelled at her angrily, throwing his backpack up onto his shoulders. "You told me that it didn't matter what anyone thought and to keep believing in them!"

She raised her hands in defense. "Yeah, and you should, but-!"

"But what? To stop acting like a little kid and grow up a little? Screw you, Evie! Just because _you_ decided to grow up! Just because _you_ didn't have someone like Jack as your best friend!"

She slammed the driver's door shut, barking out a humorless laugh. "I _had _to grow up, Jamie. I didn't really have much of a choice, did I? But with you, you can do whatever the _hell _you want, alright? I was only trying to help you by pointing out, pretty _damn _reasonably that you didn't have to continued to be bullied!"

"Help me? I don't want your help! Why don't you just go back to New York? In fact, phone my mom, I'll be _happy_ for her to come back so you can finally butt out of our lives!" He sneered, turning on his heel and stomping up the path.

"You're damn fuckin' _right _I'll call her!" She retorted after him, watching with fury as he tried to open the front door, but only to discover it was locked. He kicked the wood angrily, which made Evie go absolutely nuts.

Jack toppled down from the beam, somehow more gracefully than an average human being. His crystal orbs went between the two cousins in alarm, not sure what to say between the heated argument. When Evie had run out earlier, she'd yelled something over her shoulder about Jamie being in trouble. He hadn't realized that he was being _bullied_.

He barely had enough time to dive away when the teenager turned to him, her gaze burning into the spirit as she stomped towards him after successfully unlocking the front door. She jabbed a finger into his chest, scowling up at him. "Did you know that he was being bullied?"

He glared down at her, annoyed with the red-haired girl. "How would _I _know? What's going on?"

"Those little scumbags from yesterday! Stuffed him into a dumpster at school all because he _believes _in you!" She growled out, fists clenched by her sides as she turned away. As she was turning away, she saw his crystal eyes widen with hurt and his face fall from what she'd told him. She instantly felt the guilt begin to consume her, wincing as his face flashed in her mind.

She exhaled sadly, shaking her head but not turning to face him as she spoke again. "I-It's not your fault. Jamie and his friends are very lucky, bright kids. They have faith, which in some kids today are hard to come by. They shouldn't get shot down for having beliefs, it's not their fault." She murmured softly, eyes glassy as she stared across the front yard. "Sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you like that, and I'm sorry you had to see that, but as you can understand...I can't do _anything_." The anger began to seep back inside of her, making a scowl form on her remorseful face. "I can't step in and beat the little freaks up, can I? I can't _force _Jamie to get help, I can't _force _the kids in the school to _see _you so maybe, just _maybe _they won't treat Jamie like a punch bag!"

Jack watched silently as she veered to the right and swung her foot out in one, fluid movement. Evie cried out in anger as he foot made impact with one of the supports for the porch railing, stepping away from it after her outburst. The spirit didn't comment or follow as she stomped off of the porch and indoors, slamming the door after her.

"At least they can see you." He murmured into the silence, his voice barely over a whisper.

**Jamie's in troooooouble. Yup. An argument between the two cousins, I might need to go back over this to check if there's any words I've left out (I have a terrible habit of missing out words like 'of' or 'when', because I can be a little careless). I wasn't going to add the bit where she sort of snapped at Jack, but I feel it sort of needed to be added. Hope I didn't make her out to be too much of a bitch there, but as many of you know, it's crushing not being able to fully help someone you care about. But then again, Jack can relate to that entirely...**


	14. Chapter 14

_The flames were almost beautiful. They roared, scorching the paint work, the wallpaper, illuminating the dark hall._ _Leaving complete destruction in their wake. _

_The body seemed so heavy, heavier than she could remember it being. It almost made her collapse to the ground as she hurried through the smoke, trying to crouch away from it. It had already begun to invade her lungs though, and she choked often, eyes streaming with tears that she was unable to prevent. It was silent, the sounds yet again not audible. _

_Suddenly, she was burning. Her skin prickled with heat for several seconds before she could feel the flames burning the skin of the upper left hand side of her back. With the unbearable weight in her arms and then this, she was almost unable to continue her escape. _

_Suddenly, she was stumbling forwards into the cold evening air, her silent screams erupting from her as she collapsed into the white blanket of snow, thick and glimmering beneath the roaring flames that took hold of the burning house. She choked between her screams, rolling away from the body and try to extinguish the burning flames on her back. She was suffocating and torrid, part of the flames, part of the destruction. The fire was so bright, casting light in the twilight evening...yet, it was so dark. _

_The darkness seemed to creep towards her, swirling and almost alive like the smoke. She continued to burn, thrashing against the freezing substance beneath her and the blazing flames on her back. It was such a unsual feeling, fire and ice, both so similar, yet so different. Consuming her as the darkness neared. They both burned, despite being the complete opposite to each other. _

_And then the darkness swallowed her up, removing all of her senses. Except, of course, the ability to feel. _

Evie sprung forwards so she was sitting up and gasped, choking on the air as she did so. Her lungs felt raw, as if she had coughed for a long period. She didn't even glance up to check her surroundings, she knew that she wasn't in any danger. Instead, she pressed her head into her hands and brought her knees up to her chest, resting her forearms on her kneecaps. She recognized the slightly damp yet stiff feeling on her face, the tears she had cried now dry and stopped.

She was burning still. She could _feel _it, the flames on her back. Now spread to her arms, prickling her pale skin and making her wince. A bead of sweat rolled down her forehead and this was when she took the opportunity to furiously kick away her bed sheets. She didn't dare remove her head from her hands as she escaped from them, almost afraid to open her eyes. She felt unbearably hot, roasting in her pajamas, roasting in her own skin.

In seconds, Evie sprung up from her bed, staggering away from the tangled mess on her mattress and clumsily stumbling to a stop in the center of the room. She now got the chance to see how truly dark her room was, instantly reminding her of the swirling, approaching darkness in her dream. She stood frozen for a few moments, unable to move from her spot.

She scrambled forwards when she remembered the prickling, ghost-like burn on her skin, still lingering from her nightmare. Before she was fully aware of what she was doing, she was out of her bedroom and hurrying down the staircase, choking on her panicked breaths. She was burning still, she was roasting in the aftermath of her dream. She could barely breathe, barely pull herself together. On her way down the stairs she could hear whispering coming from Jamie's bedroom but was unable to turn back up, poke her head in and tell him to go to sleep. She couldn't breathe properly and wasn't in a good state for him to see her...and if anything, the two were keeping out of each other's way.

Minutes later, Evie tore open the back door in the kitchen, light-headed and shaking. A blast of cold air hit her, making her jump slightly from the feel of it as it hit her feverish skin. She stiffened in the doorway for a moment, shakily inhaling the cold air into her lungs as her eyes flickered shut. Recalling what the colourful, odd-woman had told her a few years before, she counted backwards from ten and held onto the air. And then, after the last second, slowly exhaled.

Evie shut the back door behind her and took a couple of steps further out onto the porch before seating on the wooden steps, gradually becoming calmer in the night air. It began to cool her down from her panicked state, slowly ceasing the burning feeling on her skin. She hadn't had an attack like this for over two years, she'd had moments of brief bitterness or upset but not to the point where she was unable to breathe.

A sudden, overwhelming feeling of grief hit her, making her head fall into her hands. Her lips trembled as she squeezed her eyes shut, trying to prevent the tears from falling. It had been so _dark_. Darker than she'd remembered it had been, darker than she'd ever dreamt it to have been. It hadn't swirled around in the depths of the flames, it didn't close in on her like _that. _As if it was _alive_.

"Evie?"

She lifts her head to the familiar voice, blinking up at Jack who hovered a few metres from the ground. He looked as if he was geared up to fly away from the house, but turned his body around slighty to the teenager. She realized that he had just left from Jamie's bedroom window. Jack hadn't expected to find the girl outside in the dark back yard and was even surprised to find her without a jacket on. He himself knew that it was cold out, so why wasn't she dressed a little warmly?

She didn't respond, glancing up towards the dark night sky. The moon was almost full, but not quite. It glowed partially behind a wispy cloud that was slowly passing over it, allowing to see more of the dark yard in before her. Jack swept down beside her onto the porch railing, balancing perfectly on the wooden beam. Creeping forwards to the end of the banister, he notices something on her upper left back. His eyebrows knit together as a frown forms on his face, gripping his staff tightly in his hand.

From what he could see, there was an odd patch of puckered skin on the area. It was very clearly a different colour from her natural skin tone, appearing more pink or darker than the skin around it. It disappeared beneath the black vest top she wore, but he was able to see enough of it to know what it was. And from what he could tell, she'd been burnt pretty badly.

"What happened?"

She stiffened, glancing at him from out of the corner of her eye. Once again she didn't reply, silently rubbing her bare upper arms. She often didn't wear tops that exposed the burns on her back, especially around Jamie and Sophie. But she'd went to bed feeling hot so had changed her pajama shirt for the vest. If only she'd grabbed a hoodie on her way out, then she might've been able to avoid a situation like this.

"I hope you shut that window," She muttered, ignoring his question. "It's pretty cold tonight and you have an annoying habit of leaving them open."

Jack rolled his eyes, hopping down from the railing almost silently. "If it's so _cold_, then why are you out here, huh? Aren't you meant to be asleep?" Evie didn't throw a single glance at him as he seated beside her, following her gaze that was transfixed onto nothing in particular. He half expected her to retort with a sarcastic, snippy comment but she didn't. Instead she chewed the inside of her cheek, letting the silence settle between the two.

But then, finally, she spoke. "He's still mad at me, isn't he?" She murmured softly, her glassy gaze not trailing towards the winter spirit. Jack eyed her briefly before replying.

"He's not mad at you, not really. He was just shocked that you told him to stop believing in me-"

Before he could continue, Evie interrupted him. "I never said that. I just tried to tell him that he basically needed to be careful what he says around other kids. Believing in you is not the reason Jamie is being bullied, Jack. He's being bullied because he's yelling from the rooftops about a bunch of living stories."

He chuckled slightly. "Living _stories?_"

"Well, that's what you guys are, right? Stories, myths, legends, fairy tales, dreams...but, you're all living, you've been here all along."

"Well, that's an interesting way of putting it." He shrugged, eying her with slight amusement. Her lips twitched up into a small smile, tilting her head to him for a moment and then glancing away. A short silence followed, but not long before he spoke again. "Don't be so hard on yourself, Evie. You do a great job looking after those kids, being there for them. And that's one of the things that you're best at, being there."

He watched as her brown eyes widened, a little taken back by what he'd said. Her mouth opened, ready to speak, but then closed again. She did this for a few seconds, speechless and at a loss to say. She felt something swell inside of her, making a sad smile form on her lips. She felt as if she didn't deserve his kind words from the way she'd acted towards him earlier. She hadn't exactly been as welcoming towards him as she could have been, as she wasn't sure how to feel about an odd boy creeping through Jamie's window in the middle of the night.

But despite that, he wasn't at all a bad guy.

"Thank you," She replied gently, trying to piece together her next words carefully, struggling to do so as she wasn't used to opening up. "I should thank you too, you know. You've been watching out for those two for the past year or so, right?"

He gave her a genuine smile, eyes still on her. "Evie, you don't need to thank me, it's my _job_, I'm a Guardian, remember? As long as they still believe in me, I'll always be protecting them."

She had turned her gaze onto him now, smiling back. Beneath the moonlight, his eyes appeared to be icier then their usual crystal blue colour. She couldn't help but admire them, as she hadn't seen a pair of eyes like them before. But suddenly, she suddenly realised that she'd been sitting beside him, staring into his eyes and smiling like an idiot. Feeling pretty stupid, she awkwardly shifted her eyes, turning away from him slowly.

Jack noticed her sudden shyness and raised an eyebrow slightly, a little amused by her clear embarrassment. It was undeniably sort of cute, he had noted to himself. He studied her for a few more moments before drawing his attention back onto the burns on her back. They didn't look too recent, but yet they didn't seem to have been received from an early age.

He opened his mouth to question the scars on her back, to ask how she got them, but managed to hold his tongue. Evie had avoided answering earlier, which was a sign that she clearly didn't want to open up on the story behind them. Jack also didn't want to pry into her personal business after they seemed to of had a nice sort of moment together minutes ago.

Besides, it was late and not exactly the right time or place for this.

"Anyway, why are you out here in the cold, huh?" He demanded, then gesturing to her bare arms. "You must be freezing without a jacket! Why aren't you asleep?"

She rolled her eyes, leaning forwards as she breathed out a sigh. "Just some bad dreams, that's all...I just needed some air, and well, the cold. It felt as if I was burning up," She explained, ignoring the flashing images in her mind of the flames. Jack watched as she winced, and then to her surprise raised his arm and pressed his pale palm flat against her forehead.

Both gasped.

Evie's eyes flickered shut after widening from the sudden shock of coldness, quickly adjusting to the coolness of his skin. She relaxed against his touch, instantly feeling soothed by his cold temperature. His abnormally low body temperature was settling the burning feeling on her skin, and when Jack removed his hand slightly after it jolted back a little, she felt herself leaning forwards after it.

Jack on the other hand was completely shocked by the sudden warmth. Warmth was an understatement, Evie was _burning_. His hand jolted away from her head slightly, and he watched as she leaned forwards, pressing her forehead back into his touch. She seemed at ease now from what he could see.

"Evie, you're burning up..." Jack murmured gently, still holding his hand against her skin.

"Mhm." Her lips tugged up into a small smile and she finally opened her eyes, instantly meeting his gaze. "Sorry if I'm melting you, frostbite, and this probably sounds freaky but this feels good. You're cooling me down."

She was right, he was. He made no move to remove his hand from her forehead, allowing her to get relief from her feverish state.

"I won't melt, silly. You're a little hot, not on _fire,_" Jack watched as she winced slightly. "Hey, hey, are you alright?"

Evie nodded. "Yeah, don't worry..."

Sighing at her vague reply, he decided to prod her about her dream. "So, what happened in your dream that was so bad?"

Her smile faltered; she appeared suddenly a little sad and weary. Evie wasn't ready to tell Jack about her dream, it would make him ask further questions that she didn't want to answer. There wasn't anything peculiar about the dream, it was one she faced, well, at least used to face often.

Had experienced.

But suddenly, she remembered the one unusual thing about her bad dream, and before she could stop herself she found the following words tumbling from her lips,

"Darkness." She muttered, watching as Jack's posture suddenly became rigid. She found herself continuing. "It was swirling, closing in on me. Like it was alive."

Jack, the animated, annoying boy had become a statue. He had frozen in this stiff stance, leant forward with his arm propped up on one knee, his grasp on his staff so tight that his knuckles appeared pure white against his actual pale skin tone. His jaw was set, teeth ground together and lips set in a tight line. His icy blue eyes had widened at her words, but now appeared grim, solemn. The light atmosphere had become tense in a matter of seconds, and Evie shifted uncomfortably as he stared at her with a serious look that sent chills down her spine.

She pulled away from his hand, watching him closely. His hand hung in the air for a few more moments, before falling back to his side, but he didn't tear his gaze from her.

"Do you dream of it often?"

A little thrown off by his odd demeanour, she blinked at him with confusion. "W-What?"

"The _darkness._" This time it wasn't a question, it was more like a demand, a statement perhaps. His words had a sharp edge to them, a little impatient. She felt herself leaning away from him, readying herself for something. She wasn't sure what, but from his sudden change in attitude she felt uneasy. She doubted that it would come to it, but she prepared herself nether the less to either fight or flee.

"You're freaking me out, Jack," She replied back in a cool tone, refusing to allow her uneasiness to show. "it was only a bad dr-" She began to reassure him, inching up from her seat on the steps to spring up, ready to distance herself. Before she could even lift herself from beside him, Jack saw what she was trying to do and grabbed her.

The sixteen year old gasped as he pulled her back down onto the steps, snagging her closer to him. In one fluid movement he had stood his staff up against the railing beside him, his hand that had held it grasping onto her other arm. He leaned in towards her, the solemn look becoming more severe. Evie wriggled in his hold, trying to break away from him but was unable to do so. Her fists clenched, her eyes scanned around their surroundings for anything for her to grab to defend herself with if he hurt her, but nothing was close enough.

Furious, she found herself hissing at him, "_Get your hands off of me!_"

"_Evie_," Warm brown eyes met ice, and Jack felt his stare soften. He murmured his next words gently. "This is serious, alright? Do you dream about the darkness often?"

She had now stopped struggling, completely still by his sudden soft voice. She stared at him, clearly uncomfortable and weary, but not fighting to snatch herself from his firm hold. He seemed almost afraid of what she was going to say, as if whatever she would say would predict what was going to happen.

"No." She replied back, swallowing. "I have dreamt the same dream for...a few years now, but darkness had nothing to do with it. I only dreamt about it for the first time tonight."

**So, I've sat three exams now. Art, English and Maths. I was seriously almost late to my English one, I had to run to school to get there (I'm late to everything, honestly). My next exam is on Thursday, so I thought I'd throw an update in for you all. I'd say expect another one, I _want _to say expect another one, but my updates are so random and unpredictable right now, not to a weekly basis (like I want it to be) because of these exams and studying. When I sit my final exam, I hope to get back into updating often to the point where I finish this. **

**WOOOOO MODERN STUDIES, LAW AND SHIT. WOOOOOOOOOOO cry **


	15. Chapter 15

When Jack had entered North's workshop, he found Bunny arguing with the man about summoning them all once again to the Pole so close to Easter. He held a paintbrush in his hand and a half-painted egg, part of it pale pink in colour and the other half a masterpiece.

Jack rolled his eyes, turning his attention to Tooth who was blasting demands at her small fairies. The three of them didn't notice the winter spirit come in, but Sandy, who was the most observant of the Guardians, luckily did. He waved to his fellow Guardian, giving Jack a warm smile. Jack kindly smiled back and walked closer to the small, golden man and the rest of the group.

"North, do you wanna tell me why you called us all here?" Jack drawled out loudly, managing to catch their attention. North turned to the younger Guardian, throwing his large, tattooed arms up in exasperation, mid-argument with Bunny.

"As I explain to Bunny, I did _not_ call you all here! I did not activate lights-!"

Bunny, with a roll of his green eyes hopped forwards. "And who do you suppose did, huh? The elves? A yeti? _Manny?_"

And then, as if on cue, a bright, glowing beam of light was cast down through the large, open gap in the ceiling below the skylight. All of them were silenced as it rapidly became brighter, landing on the large, circular tile in North's workshop with the signature letter '_G_' beautifully engraved into the marble.

"Manny!" North turned his head up to the moon in the sky, bright eyes shining with wonder. "Dear friend, what are you trying to tell us?"

Before all of their eyes, the circle around the engraving opened up from the center, and from the glowing bright moon beam, a large crystal rose from inside of the hole. Jack grasped onto his staff, unsure of what was happening.

He tore his gaze from the rising crystal to the others. "Guys, what is he doing?"

"I-I-" Tooth stuttered, a little dazed yet appearing excited. "He's chosen a new Guardian!" Her small fairies squealed with glee, hovering around her as her pink eyes twinkled.

Jack couldn't believe what he was hearing. _A new Guardian? _Soon? What had convinced the Man in the Moon to choose another Guardian? What had made him so certain that another one was needed? Was something bad about to happen?

Similar questions ran through the other Guardians' heads. Jack ignored Bunny as he began to ramble away about not needing another Guardian, voicing Jack's thoughts. The winter spirit shielded his eyes slightly from the almost unbearably bright light, peeking over the cover of his arm at the crystal. The bright light settled slightly, dimming as a glowing beam began to rise from the head of the crystal, beginning to create an odd sort of image.

"...Cupid? Ha, good one, Sandy!" Bunny rolled his eyes after seeing Sandy's image of an arrow being pierced through golden heart and a glimmering question mark beside it. Tooth shook her head, throwing other well-known spirit names.

The Groundhog, Mother Nature, Father Time...

And then, the glowing blue holographic image settled, becoming clear for all of them to see. The image appeared to be a girl, dressed in pants, boots, a hooded jacket with another shorter jacket over the hooded one. Her hair hung down passed her shoulders, her fringe swept to the side.

There wasn't a spirit on the planet that any of them were aware of dressed like _that_. Her arms were shoved inside of the pockets of her hooded jacket, her stance somewhat casual. A small smile could be seen on her lips.

"Wait, who is _that?_" Bunny frowned, hopping forwards and narrowing his eyes. "She doesn't look very old!"

Tooth flew forwards a little, narrowing her own eyes. "Jack, she looks younger than you! What's that behind her?"

As North craned his head back up to the moon to demand who the mysterious girl was, Jack's crystal blue eyes settled on the object behind the girl. It appeared to be long, stretching up to level with His eyes widened, noticing the weird, long object protruding from behind her. It came out from behind her lower back, tilted downwards. Jack's eyes widened, recognising the object.

The neck of the guitar, the girl.

"_Evie?_"

* * *

The sixteen year old made her way down the hall, hands stuffed into the pockets of her jacket. An earphone was jammed into one of her ears and she sang along to the music under her breath as she walked, burgundy coloured backpack slung over her shoulder

"..._In a champagne supernova in the skyyyyy..._" She sang softly, keeping an eye out for any teachers. She did have a hall pass in her back pant pocket, her art teacher excusing her lateness as she kept the red-haired girl behind for ten minutes. Her next class was math, and she wasn't particularly bothered about being late to it, so continued her leisurely stroll down the corridor.

"_Someday you will find me, c__aught beneath the land-sliiiiiiide,_" She continued to sing, veering right around the corner onto another corridor, which lead to a longer route to her math class. She wasn't in any rush to sit through fifty-five minutes of Ms. Keller's drone about trigonometry, so what was the hurt in taking her time?

As she walked, humming the tune of the song she listened to, the lights in the hallway suddenly flickered off above her. Evie froze to a stop and watched as the lights further down the corridor switched off one after the other, like out of a horror movie. The corridor now appeared dark from where she stood, the only light that she could see coming from the hall that she'd turned down from and the daylight from the window five metres away from her.

Deep down, she felt as if that was a sign that she should turn back and head back the other way, back on the shorter route to her next class, back where she felt safer and not near so many shadows. Chewing on the inside of her cheek, she turned her head around to throw a glance at the corridor that she'd been walking down before, a little wary. The last thing she wanted was to get attacked on the way to freaking _math_.

But then again, it was probably just a silly kid, one of those little brats who went passed light switches and flicked them off, purely for amusement. Rolling her eyes, she shook her head and walked onwards, adamant that she wasn't about to get killed.

"Hold up there, sheila," A low, Australian-accented voice murmured from the shadows. Evie froze, eyes widening as she turned her head in the direction of the voice, stomach plummeting. She couldn't _see_ anyone! She shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot, grasping tightly onto one of the straps of her backpack.

"What do you want?" She replied back, swallowing. She managed to keep her tone somewhat strong, avoiding her words breaking in the silence.

There was a moment's pause before the mysterious stranger replied back to her. "Come easily and the ride'll be gentler."

She felt herself pale, her eyes searching the area beside the lockers for this man. It was a man, there was no boy in her school that she had heard with a voice as deep as that, let alone one with an Australian accent.

_Shit_, she thought to herself. She should have turned back! What had she walked herself into?

_Go the longer way, they said! It'll be fine, they said!  
_

"No." She responded, before spinning on her heel and bolting back towards the direction of the lit hallway. Seconds after she took off, she stumbled to a stop, her sneakers screeching against the polished floor. Two giant, bulky figures had stepped out from the shadows and in her path, looming over her. She staggered away from the two creatures, mouth hanging open slightly. Were they giving the jocks _steroids? _These guys were huge!

She spun once again and took off back down the dark hall, holding tightly onto her backpack as she retreated. But then, another figure appeared, well literally _hopped _out in front of her.

"Always were a fast one, weren't 'ya?" The tall figure chuckled slightly, taking another hop towards her as she took a step away from him. She couldn't see him properly because of the lack of lighting, but saw from his silhouette two, long ears protruding from the top of his head. Her eyes widened, taking another step back as he continued. "Kid, 'ya don't wanna race a rabbit..."

Her brow furrowed at the familiar feeling to his words, but before she had a chance to reply, two bulky, big hands slammed down on her shoulders. She jumped and begun to snap her head around try to face the two who had grabbed her, instantly beginning to struggle. Suddenly she was snatched up into the air, one of the hands reaching down under her armpit as she cried out.

"H-Hey!" She yelled. In the same fluid movement, she was thrown downwards and stuffed in what she could only presume was a sack, of all things. Evie struggled to battle her way to the opening of the sack, but immediately the opening was sealed shut and she was enveloped in darkness.


	16. Chapter 16

"_Get me out of here!_"

Evie thrashed from within the sack, wildly kicking her legs out and punching at the thick, heavy material. Her yells, protests and curses were muffled, her attempts to escape practically useless. She tried to punch towards the opening of the sack to make whoever was holding it let go.

Unfortunately, she started to become tired from her struggles, her frantic movements slowing to a stop. She panted for a few seconds, clutching tightly onto the interior of the sack. Who would shove her into a sack and kidnap her? Was she being pranked, or was she in danger?

_Jamie and Sophie_. Would she ever see them again?

A strangled, muffled sob escaped from the back of her throat and her foot shot out once more out of anger. Grounding her teeth together, she refused to allow her eyes to sting with tears, refusing to not go down without a fight; prank or not.

"_Let me go! You won't get away with this!_"

Just as she began to prepare herself for the possible worst, she felt herself plummeting downwards. She landed, from within the sack, on her shins, grunting when she made contact with the ground. That'd leave a bruise for sure.

The sixteen year old remained that way for a few moments, hunched over on her knees, backpack still hung over her shoulders and eyes wide. Whoever had held the sack was no longer doing so, but she made no move just yet to scramble her way out from the bag. Who could be waiting out there for her?

There was only one way to find out.

Slowly and tentatively, she reached forwards to the opening of the sack, gently prodding the material and pushing it open with her fingers. Light broke through the darkness of the bag, and she squinted slightly when she made the opening wider.

And then, to her surprise, two tiny faces appeared in her line of vision. And by tiny, she thought that at first they were small children. She was only able to see their faces because of the odd clothing they wore that covered the majority of them. Their small eyes glimmered gold and narrowed slightly with curiosity, peering at the girl.

She stared at them with mirrored interest, studying their features. They _couldn't_ be children, could they? There were visible creases on their faces, clear signs of age...but how come they were so small? She crawled forwards a little, blinking at the two little things and managing to see much more of them. Their bright eyes widened from her slow approach and both began to step away from the sack, gasping.

They were both dressed in red, pointy hats. The little creature on the right stumbled back further, and a little bell that was attached to the pointed hat fell forwards and jingled slightly. She crawled slowly after them, brow furrowing at a distinct feature that they both shared. A pair of pointy, long ears stuck out of the side of their hats, making Evie instantly guess what they probably were.

_Elves?_

What the hell was going on here?

She raised her hand to support the sack as she crawled out, peering upwards away from the two elves. Before her stood a giant man with a long white beard, dressed in black pants and a red shirt, his long sleeves pushed up his large arms. He seemed to tower over her small frame from where she kneeled on the ground, blinking up at him with shock. He crouched for a moment, peering down at her with bright blue eyes and a wide smile.

Something on his arms caught her attention. On each arm appeared to be a set of tattoos, but from where she was she couldn't see them very well. The opening of the sack that she held above her flapped down in front of her eyes, and with a huff she shoved the rest of the sack off of her upper body.

Evie then caught sight of another figure hovering off of the ground beside the large man, muttering quick demands at tiny bird-like creatures that swarmed around her. The woman was covered with a range of coloured feathers of greens and blues. Despite this, she had a small human face, making the sixteen year old wonder if she was part bird, part human_. _Evie knew straight away that the flickering range of soft colours protruding from her back were wings, appearing similar to a hummingbird.

"Evie Grayson!" A powerful voice boomed, making the red-haired girl jump slightly. Evie snapped her head in the direction of the voice, her eyes landing on the man again. She shifted her eyes briefly from side to side, eyebrows furrowing as if she couldn't believe he was greeting her.

_What even was this?_

Clutching tightly onto the sack that still lay around her legs, she spoke. "Where am I?"

"You are in the North Pole!" He waved his giant arms around the room a little. She recognized an accent in his voice as she raised her head to peer around her surroundings. Russian? Maybe. Her jaw dropped a little at the vast size of the room, the rich colours and...how oddly grand it all was. Behind the man and the hovering woman was a giant fireplace, a warm fire lit on the thick logs. Her eyes trailed upwards towards the mural that rose upwards on the wall above the mantel, showing a figure strongly resembling the big man in front of her, swinging a sword.

Then, after her gaze travelled down the right pillar, her head turned downwards so she was staring at the giant rug beneath her and the sack she still sat in. Dark green clashed with red, the seasonal colours making her feel warm. She peered up, away from the rug and towards the left where a giant bookcase was situated against the wall. She could barely take it all in, there was so much in there, but despite this she couldn't help but feel safe.

But then, his words finally dawned on her.

"Woah, woah...wait, _wait_," She shook her head, backtracking from her thoughts. "Did you just say the _North Pole__?_"

He nodded, smile growing wider. "Yes, you hear correctly!"

Yeah, he was definitely Russian.

"H-How?" She stuttered. Evie blinked down suddenly at the sack she was still kneeling in and shoved away the heavy material with stiff fingers, pushing herself off of the ground. North watched her with amusement as she stumbled away from the sack, clutching hold of the straps of her backpack. She did indeed look very much like the holographic image that the moon had shown them, but he hadn't expected her to have hair as bright as the shirt he was wearing!

As she was staggering away, she slammed back into a large, warm, fluffy walls. Well, not exactly a wall, but whatever it was towered over Evie and seemed so strong that she thought so at first. She tripped forwards a little, but luckily a heavy, thick hand slammed down onto her shoulder, preventing her fall. Evie spun around and faced two massive creatures, who also towered over her, covered from head to toe with fur and possessed big, round eyes.

But that didn't stop her from yelling out and snatching herself away from the one that had stopped her from falling, completely freaked out by what was happening. The two fluffy beings raised their hands in defense and took a step away from her as she tried to wrap her head around what she was seeing. One even comically let out a low, grumbled sort of yell too, equally as startled as the girl. A thousand thoughts were running through her mind, one of them wondering if she dreaming and another trying to guess which direction would be the best route to escape.

Once again, she collided with another being. Evie spun around once more, gasping as she raised her fists to shove away whoever she had bumped into. She saw a flash of blue and white before she was grabbed and held still in place, and then she found herself staring straight at Jack Frost.

"Evie, _Evie_, it's okay!" He assured her, his hands squeezing her upper arms gently. "You're safe, don't panic!"

His crystal blue eyes calmed her slightly, the familiar orbs settling her panicked thoughts for a moment. She let a shaky breath escape her lips as she kept her eyes on the white-haired boy, searching his face for any sign of lies behind his words. She blinked down at his frosted sweatshirt before then blinking back up at him, nodding once. She lightly shrugged her shoulders, indicating that she was fine, and he understood her silent message and released her. Evie edged away from him, tearing her gaze away from him and around her.

That was when she noticed a small man who was entirely golden-yellow in colour. He seemed to glimmer under the light, and Evie could help but note that he was undeniably cute. His golden hair stuck up in different directions on his head, his gold eyes twinkling. To her surprise, he waved at her, smiling kindly at the sixteen year old.

A small smile tugged at the corner of her lips, and she raised her hand to slowly wave back, but it froze in mid-air and then dropped back down to her side again. Evie frowned, blinking down at the rug, briefly up to the three people, or, well, creatures in front of her before turning to Jack. She pursed her lips, taking a step away from him as his crystal blue eyes searched her face. She couldn't deny that she was struggling to take this all in, that this all wasn't making her feel stupidly light-headed or confused in the slightest.

He had a lot of explaining to do. But first,

"Am I... dead?" She demanded, trying to keep her tone smooth and calm, but it wavered slightly at the end. Jack's eyes widened and he quickly shook his head. She felt relief flood her, but she couldn't relax just yet. The boy went to speak, to reassure her, but she interrupted him before he could say a single word. "Good. That's good to hear. Jamie and Sophie, they're safe right?" She paused for a moment, letting her words sink in to the tense atmosphere she'd created.

"Of course!" North bellowed from where he stood.

She turned her head to him. "In school, in Burgess?"

"_Yes. _Evie, they're both fine-"

"Fan-_tastic_." She cut him off. After swallowing, she continued. "Now that's out the way, could someone please explain to me why the _hell _I was shoved into a _sack__?_" Her words had a sharp edge, and they could now see how annoyed she truly was. Her eyes went from the three in front of her and back towards Jack, who raised his hands in defense under her burning stare.

"It wasn't _my _idea! I planned on talking things out with you and taking you here myself! It was _North_," He threw one hand in the direction of the big-bearded man. "who thought he'd get his yetis to shove you in there and carry you through the magic portal!"

She blinked, unable to properly process what she was hearing. "Magic...portal?" She turned towards the man, towards North, eyes becoming larger for a few moments. "_Yetis?_"

North gestured towards the two giant, fluffy creatures, to which she turned to look at them. As if in response, one of them began to grumble away in gibberish, confusing the girl but bringing a small smile onto her face. His face was priceless! Was it a he? She'd say so for now.

"Doesn't cut it," She shook her head, removing her stare from the two creatures and back towards North, who stood there still smiling brightly at her, despite her hostility. "Why would you plan to _ambush _me in the middle of school, huh? Me, of all people...?"

North inclined his head. "Ambush is, ah, strong word, don't you think?"

"No, I mellowed it down a little to that, my original thought was kidnapped, actually."

Suddenly, someone else cut in. "Hardly kidnap, sheila." Evie spun around to the shadows where the voice was coming from, recognising the voice of the stranger from the corridor at school.

"_You! _You're the punk who-!" She stopped herself before a long string of insults escaped her mouth. "...so, cornering me in the dark, threatening me to come with you and then getting two _yetis _to shove me into a sack to take me to the North Pole doesn't count as kidnap? You dragged me out of school!" She narrowed her eyes, trying to see through the shadows at the Aussie but only able to see a slight silhouette.

"Well, 'ya weren't in any particular rush to your next class, were 'ya?"

"Math? Of course not! But either way, I was on my way there-!"

He scoffed. "You were _strolling_, Evie."

Rolling her eyes, she replied, _"Moderate speed_. I was walking at a moderate speed."

He didn't seem to have a response to that, so instead decided to show himself. Evie watched has hopped from out of the shadows, taking a couple of steps back when the man came under the light.

Man? Think again, he was a giant _rabbit_.

She stiffened when his full frame came into sight, one of her hands dropping down to her side. Of course, _of course_. How could she of not known it was him? The accent should have been enough, no wonder why his words had thrown her off a little earlier. She recognized his grey-blue fur and forest green eyes, his twitching long ears.

She'd almost forgotten, but not quite.

The others noticed the sudden change in her attitude, in her demeanour, noticing her surprised expression when he left the shadows. From appearing annoyed only seconds ago, boarding fierce, she looked suddenly a little lost. They couldn't help but wonder if she was thrown off by his appearance; that he was of course, a rabbit.

"Hi." She greeted him shyly, shoving her free hand into her jacket pocket. Bunnymund inclined his head slightly, trying to refrain the small smile on his lips to grow. She chewed on the inside of her cheek, waiting for him to reply.

And finally, after a few moments of silence, he nodded once, eyes going straight to her hair. "Red?"

"Yeah." Her eyes went up to a tuft of her pillar-box red hair that fell slightly over one eye, and then back to him.

"Interesting."

She shifted onto her other foot, unable to muster a reply to that. The others were confused by their odd exchange, glancing at each other with confusion. Jack narrowed his eyes on the girl, blinking up towards his fellow Guardian and then back to her.

"Wait, do you two know each other?" He questioned.

Evie ignored him, removing her hand from her jacket and quickly changing the subject. Quickly recalling the conversation she had with Jamie a couple of weeks back, she spoke. "Right, well, _wow_...The Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, uh..." She paused, struggling to name the following two. She turned to Jack beside her, pointing at him. "_Jack Frost_..."

"The Sandman," Jack smirked, pointing to the golden man. "You can call him Sandy, though, and she's Tooth."

She stared towards the hovering woman he had pointed to, eyes widening. "As in, the Tooth Fairy?"

Tooth smiled with glee at the girl, exposing her perfectly straight, pearly white teeth. "Hello, Evie! I hope you've looked after your teeth!"

"Ah, yeah..." Evie averted her gaze away, nervously laughing. Tooth's magenta coloured eyes narrowed slightly as she folded her arms, looking down at the red-haired sixteen year old sternly. Jack watched with amusement at Evie's discomfort, his grin widening when Evie threw him a quick glare.

"Although, I recommend you to visit the dentist soon! How long has it been?"

Shit. "A few years...?"

"Three years, Evie!"

Jack raised an eyebrow, blue eyes twinkling. "Three years?"

"_Hey_," She scowled a little, throwing him another glare. "I was in boarding school, it just never got organized, alright?"

"Wait, boarding school?"

She rolled her eyes. "Anyway, why am I here exactly? Unless I'm in trouble-"

"No, no, not in trouble." The big man, North, paused for a moment. "_Although_, let me remind you, Evie, you _have _just earned you're way off naughty list. I hope you do not get yourself back on there!"

Evie pursed her lips, trying her best not to smile at the serious tone to his voice. It wasn't any surprise that she had been on the naughty list, but she couldn't help but wonder how she'd managed to get off of it. Jack frowned with bemusement at North's words, utterly surprised by what he was hearing.

He shook his head, raising his hand and point at her. "Wait, Evie was on the _naughty list__?_"

"Oh, hey, you sound surprised?" She cocked a perfectly shaped eyebrow at him.

"Well, _yeah,_" He rolled his eyes. "I thought you were..._good! _You certainly don't act like a rule-breaker!"

She couldn't contain her laugh, a wide grin planted on her face at his words. "You have no idea," She muttered. "How much as Jamie told you about me exactly?" She tilted her head, chewing on the inside of her cheek as she waited for a response.

"Uh...not an awful lot?" He paused. "I mean, he mentions you a lot, but not much actually about you...if that makes sense?"

"Ah, good. Anyway, enough of changing the subject, please, someone explain to me why I'm really here?" She asked for the last time, now a little impatient. North threw glances to the other Guardians, before nodding once, smoothing a hand over his beard and folding his large arms.

Taking a step towards her, he began. "As you have been told, by Jack, we are _Guardians_. We protect the children of the world, with our _lives, _as long as they all believe. We bring wonder, joy, hope, _dreams, _and as you can see, on globe behind you," He gestured across the room, behind the sixteen year old. She twisted her head around and stared at the huge globe located behind them all, seemingly in the centre of the workshop. "there are many lights. Each light represent a child, that _believes _in us, in the Guardians."

North walked towards the girl, pressing a hand on her shoulder. She didn't glance up at him as he released her and walked away from her, straight towards the edge of the floor that they were all on and she found herself following. He went on to say, "Two years ago, Pitch Black or as you know him as-"

"The Boogeyman," She interrupted, craning her head to look at the ceiling of the giant room. "I know, he tried to make all the kids stop believing. Jamie explained to me. The guy sounds like a total douche."

North inclined his head with interest. "Jamie Bennett? You know of him?"

"He's my cousin..."

"Oh, how interesting! Anyway, with that all explained, well, to help us, Man In Moon told us we needed Jack as Guardian." He gestured up towards an open panel in the wall, just below the ceiling. Evie cocked an eyebrow, staring up at the pale moon in the sky.

She chewed on her lip for a moment. "Nope, you lost me at guy in the moon."

"Man in Moon," North corrected. "He has asked us to bring you here, as he has chosen you as new Guardian."

Evie froze at his words, no longer continuing to follow after him. Her stomach seemed to plummet, her face drained of its colour and she began to feel light-headed again. Her hand that grasped onto the strap on her shoulder from the backpack tightened around the material, shifting it out of its original place with unease. North stopped a couple of strides away from her, turning to face the girl as she tried to process what he was saying.

"No." The single word escaped her mouth. North's brow creased as she shook her head, trying to gather the words together to form a proper response. Jack watched with concern, taking a couple of steps forward but Bunnymund stopped him, placing a hand firmly onto his shoulder. Jack understood, although a little reluctant to do as he'd silently been told.

"No? What do you mean, _no?_" North asked, his tone gentle despite the confusion behind his words.

She chewed on the inside of her cheek. "This is all wrong. The guy's made a mistake, he's obviously given you the wrong information here...I'm not, I'm-I-"

"I assure you, Evie," North cut her off. "that Manny is not one to make mistakes. He asked us, he brought all of us here together to tell us that you are needed,"

"_Needed? _For _what? _What could I possibly be of use to you guys?" She craned her head back towards the open panel in the wall and up at the moon. "And since when was there a guy that..._lives _on the moon?"

Tooth zipped over towards the two from where she had hovered, her flight quick and graceful. She came to a stop beside the teenager, pressing a delicate hand down on her shoulder. "Evie, he doesn't randomly pick people when he wants, he chooses the best for the job, and well...he's picked you, sweetie. It's your time."

"My time?" She looked at Tooth with bemusement. "How is it _my time? _I'm not..." She took a step away from her, struggling to put together her next few words without offending anyone. "I'm not like any of you, though! I don't have any powers, I don't have like, a _holiday _dedicated to me every year! I'm not particularly important to kids and I'm...I'm certainly not _responsible_." A breathless chuckle escaped her lips.

"I wasn't either," Jack spoke up from beside Bunny. Evie turned to face him as he continued. "For over 300 years I didn't take any responsibility for anything, didn't live by any rules...I just well, had fun. Caused some snowball fights, froze a lot of stuff. But Manny chose me," He paused, staring up towards the moon for a moment. "It took him a while, sure, but he chose me, because it was my time. And now, he's chosen you." He blinked down towards her, a small smile on his lips. "I didn't know who I was, Evie, but now I do, because he told me so. And now, he's telling you...so _believe it._"

She felt entirely lost now by his inspiring speech, wanting to argue with him, with _all of them_, but at the same time, she didn't. Evie felt completely uneasy among them all now, as if she didn't have a choice in the matter. A man, who supposedly lived on the moon had decided that she was now to become a Guardian.

Did she even get a choice?

A yeti approached North, carrying a large, bulky book. "With all explained..." North began as Evie's eyes began to wander around the workshop again, lost in her thoughts. "we shall make this official." He took the book from the yeti, carefully opening it and resting it between his arms. Evie barely heard him, in a daze, until two horns were sound. The sixteen year old jumped, snapping her head down to the two elves, taking a couple of steps away from them both. _That w_as when she noticed that other elves had gathered around where she stood, gathered in rows and staring up at her. The colour drained from her face as she spun around to try to make a quick retreat, but she was worried that she'd accidentally step on one.

"Uh..." Her eyes swept from elf to elf, watching their movements incase they suddenly attacked.

"Will you, Evie Grayson, vow to watch ov-"

"_Woah, woah, woah..._**Woah!**" Evie raised her hands in defense, quickly stopping the man. "Hang on a second! I didn't agree to this! Are you guys _nuts?_" She protested. Her eyes landed onto the two elves that continued to blow into the horns, ignoring her outburst. "Hey, you two! _Quit it, _alright?" The two elves stopped playing, scowling up at the teenager before she went on. "You can't just land this on me, you can't just put this much responsibility in my hands! I mean, I haven't even graduated from _high school..._" She trailed off, frowning. She blinked down towards the ground, pursing her lips. "Do I get a choice?" She asked, trying to stop herself from trembling. They all stared at her wordlessly for a few moments and she continued. "Do I even get the option to say no? Because...I'm guessing there's a huge price to pay if I become one. I die? I lose time with my family? I don't get a chance to lead my future? Which one is it?"

Bunny spoke up for the first time since earlier. "But you'll be protectin' children around the world?"

"Yeah," She turned to him, sadness visible in her eyes. "But what about _my _choice? Why, suddenly, has _my_ path been chosen for me, just like that? I mean, I don't mean to be selfish, really...but, it's almost as if everyone's already decided that I'm just gonna roll along with it and..." Her eyes became glassy for a few moments before she rolled them. "Don't get me wrong, I haven't exactly _aspired _to be anything, but now I'm just sort of well, bugged by the fact that you've all decided for me."

"It's not like that, Evie." Jack assured her, sincerity in his eyes.

"Isn't it?" She paused when she noticed that the Sandman had began to walk towards her, conjuring golden, glimmering images above his head very quickly. She tried to concentrate on what he was trying to show her, but after a few moments she gave up and shook her head. "I-I'm sorry, I don't understand."

Tooth fluttered down slightly, narrowing her magenta eyes on Sandy. "He says that there are many good aspects of being a Guardian. You get to see the world, and of course, you have the responsibility to protect all the children, but you can bring them joy, be believed in-"

"Believed in." Evie repeated, chuckling loudly. "Jesus, who would believe in _Evie Grayson?_"

North tilted his head. "You have special qualities, Evie."

"Yeah, sure. I'm skilled in dying my hair stupid colours and generally disappointing people." She scowled slightly to herself, shaking her head. "Sorry, but I just need to...I have to go. I'm sorry. I can't...do this. Not now."

The bearded man nodded once in understanding, walking back towards her. "Of course, we understand. But please, do think about this. Manny often doesn't chose new Guardians, only if...well, he feels as if something bad is about to happen. Something that will make us need extra help." He placed a hand down onto her shoulder.

"Like Pitch?"

"Yes, like Pitch." He confirmed. They both turned and began to walk back to the others. Jack watched, now grasping onto his staff. He felt as if in a way he could relate to the girl, as two years ago he wasn't exactly overjoyed to become one either. He gave her an apologetic look when she glanced up at him, to which she half smiled back. North then inclined his head to an approaching yeti who was grumbling away in gibberish to the man, grasping tightly onto a leash that was attached to one of North's reindeer. Evie followed the man's gaze, eyes widening.

Her stomach tingled with light excitement, a wide smile growing on her lips that she couldn't contain. North began to reassure the yeti about something as the deer bucked forward slightly, clearly distressed among the commotion in the workshop. She couldn't believe it, _an actual reindeer! _

Stepping around the big man, she eyed the deer with awe. "Is this actually what I think it is? An actual...?"

"Reindeer, yes." North watched the girl tentatively reach her hand out towards it. Just as he was about to warn her to be careful, the creature calmed from its previous uneasy state when her hand pressed against its head. He raised his bushy eyebrows with surprise, a little taken back that the deer hadn't warned her off or shaken her hand away.

"Uh, I don't know if you named them all how they're called in the songs," Evie began, smoothing her fingers over the fur of the reindeer's snout. "but out of interest, is there an actual Rudolph?"

North tilted his head slightly, a warm smile on his face. "Some of the names are, in fact, the true ones, others aren't. But yes, there is a Rudolph that leads my sleigh on foggy nights. Why do you ask?"

"That's...awesome. And well, I used to know a big fan of him once. Santa Claus was one thing, but Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? She'd go nuts at the song and would write letters to you to ask to see him just once..." She trailed off, her eyes glazing over. "Anyway, _anyway_, who's this one?"

**My exams are now over, and I've gone into the year above (my school gives us a few weeks in our new years for a little taster of our classes). I hope to update within the upcoming week, as halfway through I kickstart my summer :D **

**So, hope you enjoyed this chapter, sorry it took so long to write etc. Review if you wish, when I hear from any of you, even if I don't often reply, I sit and grin like an idiot for at least twenty minutes! Thank you to everyone who has so far, and also if you've followed or favorited it too! You're all awesome, maaagic little stars xo**


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